


Number 8: The Cure

by lunar_clownfish



Series: Number 8: The Cure [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Anxiety, Anxiety Attacks, Blood and Injury, Depictions of pain/injury, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Reader is a healer so firsthand depictions of injuries, Reader-Insert, Self-Insert
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:53:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 29,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26332204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunar_clownfish/pseuds/lunar_clownfish
Summary: The beginning of your life as a member of the Umbrella Academy, and how you ended up in love with one of your closest friends.
Relationships: Allison Hargreeves & Reader, Ben Hargreeves & Reader, Diego Hargreeves/Reader, Diego Hargreeves/You, Klaus Hargreeves & Reader, Luther Hargreeves & Reader, Number Five | The Boy (Umbrella Academy) & Everyone, Vanya Hargreeves & Leonard Peabody, Vanya Hargreeves & Reader
Series: Number 8: The Cure [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1913452
Comments: 27
Kudos: 86





	1. Prologue: The Beginning of it All

On the 12th hour of the first day of October 1989, 43 women around the world gave birth. This was unusual only in the fact that none of these women had been pregnant when the day first began.

Sir Reginald Hargreeves, eccentric billionaire and adventurer, resolved to locate and adopt as many of the children as possible.

He got seven of them.

Regardless of how many zeroes he kept adding to his offer, my mom wasn’t about to give Hargreeves what she saw as a reason to turn her life around for the better. As a result, my childhood consisted of an attentive mother who worked her ass off to make sure I was doing well in school and had food to eat, and still had time to read me stories to go to bed. Looking back on it now, I realize how much I took her for granted, but I guess that’s to be expected from a kid who didn’t know any better.

I didn’t realize I was different until one day, when I was playing with my friend on the playground. She had taken a nasty fall from the monkey bars, and managed to twist her ankle.

I ran over to her, feeling my body react to her pain, and touched her arm to reassure her. Almost immediately, we both watched in shock as her ankle’s bruises disappeared, and she stopped crying, as the pain began subsiding. My wonder lasted only a few seconds before my own ankle gave out in immense pain, as I had seemingly absorbed her injuries.

By that time, her parents had decided to come over to where we were sitting, and seeing that my foot had bruised, whisked us all to the doctor quickly, calling my mom on the way there. However as I sat in their car, I felt the pain slowly ebb away, and when I finally sat in the doctor’s office, my injury was completely gone.

That night, my mom explained that she knew something was special about me, given the circumstances of my birth, and the insistence of a billionaire to adopt me, but she hadn’t known what to expect. She did her best to help us work through my powers, and coming to terms with this new change in our lives, but only three days later, she was killed in a car accident on her way to work.

I had no other family, my mom was estranged from her parents when I was born, and they wanted nothing to do with me. As a result, the life I had was packed into boxes, and while I was still reeling from losing the only person that mattered to me, at the age of 9, I became a ward of the state. 

Or at least, I was supposed to. I hadn't even been registered in the system, when the same billionaire from years ago stepped into the building I was waiting in, slamming a stack of bills on the counter.

“I’m assuming this is enough for the child?” he stated. I was enough money to ignore the paperwork, and bureaucratic process, because a couple of minutes later, I was in the back of a sleek black car.

I guess the old man got what he wanted after all.

\------

Moving into the house was intimidating, going from living in a small one bedroom flat, to a building that took up a whole block. I had to adjust from living with one other person to a house full of children, a chimpanzee, a robot for a mother, and an emotionally distant rich man.

That first night I remember getting my own room, a closet full of uniforms, and a quick introduction to the people that I would live with. I wasn’t sure what Hargreeves’ deal was, and why he named the children after numbers, but I didn’t want anything to do with them. I didn’t want to be Number 8. I may have had everything now, a big house and powers, but I also had nothing. My mom was gone, and now I was expected to blend into this group of strangers without a second thought.

I sat on the bed, head in my hands as I tried to process all these events, when I heard a knock at the door. The mom, with her immaculate dress and styled hair gave me a smile.

“Can I come in, dear?” she asked softly. I nodded as she sat next to me, the bed sinking under the new weight. We sat there in silence for a couple of seconds, and she wrapped her arms around me, patting my head as I cried. She smelled like a mom, like baked goods and love, but she wasn’t mine. Still, I felt reassured by her presence and she made me feel better about being in this strange new place. She pulled away and held my shoulders, wiping the tears from my eyes as I sniffled.  
“There isn’t that better now? I may not be your mom, but I will love you as much as she did. If you want, you can call me Grace.” I took in her words, rolling them around in my head and nodded, smiling for the first time in days. 

“Thank you, Grace,” I whispered, as she stroked my hair. 

Suddenly she winked at me conspiratorially, and spoke facing the door, “You know, Diego, it isn’t much like a hero to listen in on other people’s conversations.”

Outside in the hallway, I could hear a sudden intake of breath, the person clearly shocked at having been discovered. A boy my age walked into the doorway, looking down at the floor with his hands behind his back.

“I’m s-s-sorry M-m-mom. I j-just wanted to know w-why she was c-c-crying.” he said, looking into her eyes. 

“Why don’t you come on in and ask her yourself, I’m sure she could use the company,” my new mom stated, the bed creaking as she got up from next to me. I clung onto her dress sleeve, trying to signal with my eyes that I was nervous about being left alone. She gave me one more hug, as she turned to leave. “Don’t worry (y/n), he doesn’t bite, I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me”, she said as she walked away, her heels clicking away on the floor. 

I turned to the stranger in the room, vaguely remembering Hargreeves calling him “Number Two”. His face turned red, uncomfortable with the awkward atmosphere as I grabbed my pillow, hugging it to my chest, desperate to hide myself from this new person. I took a deep breath, every inch of my nerves screaming with anxiety as I asked, “Why did Grace call you Diego, I thought your name was Number Two?”

On being acknowledged, he startled, and answered, “M-mom gave us all r-r-eal names, I’m Diego, a-and there’s Number One, that’s L-luther, then there’s Allison, Klaus, Five, Ben, and Vanya.” As he talked I connected the names to the numbers, glad for an alternative that made sense. He went silent again and looked at me carefully, then said, “M-my turn. Are you o-okay? Why w-were you crying?”

I sat there wringing my hands for a couple of seconds, then slowly told Diego about my mom, the words coming out as a whisper as I tried not to cry again. He stood thinking about what I said. “C-c-can I s-sit next t-to you?” he asked, and I nodded. 

He slowly walked over and sat where Grace had. “I-I’m s-sorry about your mom,” he whispered, “sh-she sounds like a g-good p-person”. I nodded, and he wiped away a tear that I hadn’t realized was there. “I don’t know what I w-would d-do if I d-didn’t have M-mom,” he stuttered, then he clenched his fists and looked down at the floor. “I p-promise to protect y-you, (y/n), so that you d-don’t have to c-cry e-ever again,” he said, not meeting my eyes. I felt my stomach flutter at his earnesty, moved by the empathy he showed for a person he had barely met. I threw my arms around him, “Thank you, Diego,” I whispered, “and I promise to protect you, too, so that you don’t have to cry either.” We sat there for a second, embracing in the quiet, when a sudden noise startled us apart.

“Am I interrupting something? Not that I really care,” said the boy named Five, who had just materialized in my room. He rubbed his hands together, a smirk on his face, “So, (y/n) what kind of powers do you have? I mean you have to have one if the old man wanted to adopt you years after he couldn’t the first time,” he stated matter-of-factly, plopping down on the other side of my bed, looking at me expectantly. 

“I can heal people by touching them,” I said slowly, still shocked by his sudden appearance, “I heal them by absorbing their injuries, but I heal faster than they can.” Five nodded, but before he could speak more voices came from the hallway.

“I guess our powers aren’t the only ones with shitty side effects, huh Ben?” said who I presume was Klaus as he walked in with Ben, who shrugged in response. Behind them came Allison, Luther, and Vanya trailing behind. They all stood around the room watching me apprehensively before Klaus stage whispered, “I think I should warn you that our ‘dad’ can be a real pain in the -”, before he could finish Allison elbowed him in the ribs.

“Shut up Klaus, we’re all gonna get in trouble if Dad finds us out of bed,” she hissed, before turning and smiling at me, “sorry for being so stiff earlier, Dad was strict about how we should introduce ourselves. I’m Allison, I hope we can be good friends.” She stuck her hand out and I hugged her instead.

“I hope so too,” I said. We all spent the next hour whisper-talking about the house and Hargreeves, before Grace knocked at the door, letting us know that we should get to bed before we were punished with more training. Everyone groaned and filed out the door, but before he walked out, Diego stopped at the doorway.

“Sweet dreams, (y/n), I’ll take care of you” he said, his face turning pink as he ran out into the hallway. That night I went to sleep feeling like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders, and looked forward to the beginning of my life in this family.  


\----A couple years later\----

Of course, I was naive in thinking this would be like the life I had before. Hargreeves was hell-bent on creating a superhero team to save the world, and now you were part of his plan. This meant training upon training in combat, and being homeschooled. Being trained in fighting wasn’t as bad as I thought, but the personal training sessions were what I dreaded the most, to the point where a pit formed in my stomach just thinking about them.

He saw my powers as a necessary advantage, and pushed me to work on honing them and expanding their use. The initial personal training sessions were easy enough. He’d bring in five sick people on gurneys with varying injuries from a nearby hospital, no doubt paid off to be part of this, and instructed me to heal them.

The first three were always easy enough, with minor injuries, but each new injury added to the pain I felt. Sporting a couple of scrapes and shallow cuts, I trudged toward the next patient, as Hargreeves took notes, I grasped their hand, my brain registering their second degree burn on their back as my knees buckled, the pain overwhelming as I absorbed the wound. I looked over to my him, my eyes begging him to let me stop. 

“Keep going, Number Eight”, he stated, not glancing up as he continued to write. I nodded, breathing through clenched teeth as I stumbled over to the last gurney. I touched the person’s forearm lightly, acknowledging a broken arm, and absorbing it as well. At this point I felt woozy from all the pain, which made it difficult to concentrate on healing myself. 

I passed out, fading in and out of consciousness, hearing Hargreeves’ voice say, “Let her rest in her room, but under no circumstances are you to treat her wounds. I need to see how long her powers take to heal her body,” to who I assumed was Grace, as they wheeled me to my room on a metal gurney, the metal cool on my aching skin.

I lay in pain, eyes closed, as I willed my body to heal itself as quickly as possible. Grace came in a couple of times, apologizing for not being allowed to help me hurt less. On her third trip she brought a glass of cold water, which I gulped quickly, eager to calm the blistering heat on my back somehow. 

I had just fallen asleep after healing the less painful wounds when I heard the door open again. “Mom, can I have more water please?” I whispered, eyes still shut. 

“Shh, be quiet for a sec,” whispered Klaus, as I peeked through my eyelids, I see him with a finger signaling for me to not talk.

“What are you doing here?” I whisper again, and suddenly I realize we’re not alone. Diego stands next to me, a paper bag in his hand. 

“Hi (y/n), c-can I lift your sh-shirt for a second,” he says.

“Should I leave you two alone?” says Klaus, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively, as I cough a laugh, stopping when it hurts my back. Diego turns red, turning to face Klaus.

“That’s n-n-not what I m-meant Klaus”, he whisper-yells.

“Relax, I know what you meant,” I say, lying on my stomach and revealing my back. Diego closes his eyes out of modesty and takes a tube of ointment out of the bag, carefully spreading it on the burn, and stopping when I wince. I sigh in relief, the cool ointment helping me concentrate on healing quicker. “Thanks guys”, I say, as I relax into sleep, feeling Diego’s hand on my arm for a second before he and Klaus leave, slowly shutting the door behind them.

From then on, the training only got more intense, with Hargreeves bringing in people with worse injuries, stopping the training for the day when I passed out and Diego bringing me some form of first aid that he secretly got from Grace’s supply. In those stolen moments, he would talk to me about his own training, and sometimes he came with cuts from a move gone wrong, and everytime he did, I would secretly hold his arm to heal them. 

“Why do you do that, (y/n)?” he said after noticing the cut on his cheek disappear and reappear on my face, “don’t worry about me, you need to heal yourself first”.

“I can’t let you do all the protecting, can I?” I laughed, “let me help you. Besides, I made a promise to help you too, so stop complaining.” I grinned as he groaned in mock exasperation. After a couple of minutes, I closed my eyes, finally being comfortable enough to sleep. Diego got up from his seat on my bed to leave, thinking I was asleep. I heard him walk toward the door before stopping. Suddenly I heard him walk back quickly, kiss my cheek, and walk away quickly, shutting the door behind him. 

I lay, stunned, at what had just happened. Slowly, I lifted my hand to my cheek, trying to burn the moment into my memory as the blood rushed to my face. It made the pain bearable.

I held onto the kiss through the night. At breakfast the next morning, I couldn’t meet his gaze, without revealing my feelings so I remained incredibly focused on my scrambled eggs, listening to Herr Carlson as everyone went on their day. After our general training session, I walked into the room my father used for personal training, with a newfound confidence. That changed when I saw a sixth gurney, fitted with restraints in the center of the room. Hargreeves walked in, “For this exercise, Number 8, you will be attempting to heal these people without touching them. In the battlefield you will not always have access to your teammates, and as such, you should learn to identify their injuries from afar and heal them accordingly.”

I began kicking and screaming as he had Grace and Pogo put me on the gurney and tie me down. I racked my brain, trying to figure out how to complete the task to no avail. Hargreeves was clearly annoyed as he scribbled his observations. I lay for hours, willing myself to just heal them already, but I couldn’t. Eventually he signaled to Grace, who injected the patients with a sedative. “I will leave you here for the night with the patients, until you are able to complete the task you were assigned,” he explained, as he briskly left the room, Grace trailing behind as she turned around and mouthed, ‘I’m sorry (y/n)’.

Now in the dark, I closed my eyes, defeated. Here there were five people that needed to be cured, and I was useless from a distance. I began to cry, the stress weighing on me, and I wanted to be done with this, my father, my powers, hell, even the Academy. But I had to be strong, for my mom, for my new mom, and most importantly for Diego. I promised I wouldn’t cry. 

As I controlled my breathing, I began to focus. In the dark, it was easier to concentrate. I realized in my new state of calm, that I could feel the people in the room with me. I could feel their injuries in my mind, like glowing points of light, despite not being able to see them. I focused on the first person, realizing that from my restrained state, I could tell they had a broken wrist. I visualized my body like a magnet, drawing this injury toward me, and was surprised when I saw their injury heal in my mind’s eye as theirs healed. I continued the process with the other people, my previous training helping me control the pain, and healing quicker than I ever had before. 

When morning came, Hargreeves was pleasantly surprised, and from then on, I was able to complete my training quicker and quicker. I developed the ability to sense everyone in the house, and if they were injured, which came in handy when we were sent out to missions, and I helped heal them from any injuries we encountered. 

Looking back on it now, our circumstances forced us to mature quicker than other children, the task of saving the world greater than worrying over grades or social relationships. It’s no wonder I came to resent the esteemed Reginald Hargreeves over the years, and how we all ended up like we did. And yet, I wouldn’t change my time at the Academy for anything, because then I would have never met everyone. Especially Diego. I guess that’s why, when Hargreeves finally died, I came back.


	2. We Only See Each Other at Weddings and Funerals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Umbrella Academy reunites upon the news of the death of Reginald Hargreeves.

I found out that Reginald Hargreeves was dead on the way home from therapy. It was a bit of a shock, that the man that had spent so many years of my life berating me for not being enough, had finally kicked the bucket. I was probably supposed to be grieving, or hell, even feel a little sad, but I just felt...relief. It was like a lifetime of expectations had been lifted in part from my shoulders, but only for a second. It came crashing back down as I realized this meant that I’d probably have to go back to the house for the funeral. 

After pulling into my parking spot, I walked into my small apartment, slowly closing the door behind me and doing the most sensible thing. I took a bath. It was a tip from my therapist. Cold water can be grounding for anxiety, and it seemed to freeze my churning stomach as soon as I slipped in. I let my head go under the water, and opened my eyes, my ceiling a swirling mass through the soap bubbles. I let my breath leave my lungs watching the bubbles rise to the surface, and I lifted myself out of the water.

I would have to go eventually, so might as well get this over with.

\--------

The first thing I noticed when I walked up to the house was how cold it felt, not that it had been a warm and cozy home when I was younger. I opened the door, the house vast and silent, it felt like it would swallow me whole. I shook my head and walked up the stairs to my room, sensing that at least three more people were somewhere in the house. I opened the door, surprised to see everything clean and dust-free, like I had never left. That was probably Grace's doing.

I lay down on the bed, listening to the cars outside the window as they passed by, the air they moved sounding like a whisper. The silence was broken by footsteps that stopped in my doorway. I opened an eye and sat up, seeing Luther filling the entire space.

“Welcome back (y/n),” he said and I walked up to him, tentatively wrapping him in a hug. 

“I leave for a few years and you become buff as hell,” I speak into his clothes,” who knows what would have happened if I left for longer”. I go back to sit on my bed, patting the spot next to me, as Luther sits down, and the bed creaks loudly. We sit in silence, the awkward atmosphere stifling as the words we can’t seem to say are stuck between us. “You know-”

“Hey I-”. We both speak at the same time and go quiet again. “You first”, I say, my hands fidgeting in my lap as I wait for his next words.

“I don’t blame you for what happened to Ben”, he says, “I know you tried to save him”.  
“I know you don’t”, I began to ramble, “I’m sorry for cutting you all off when the book came out. I was just so scared that you all hated me for not saving him, and I didn’t feel like I even deserved to call myself part of the Umbrella Academy if I couldn’t even do my job.” I stopped talking, and looked over to Luther. “I missed you guys a lot, and leaving you all in the dark was one of the hardest decisions of my life.”

“I missed you guys too,” he answered,” I wish we could have gotten together under better circumstances”. He looked at his hands, and got up. “I don’t think Dad’s death was normal. I’m going to go check out his room to see if anything is off.”

“Go ahead,” I say, “I may not agree with you, but if it will bring you peace of mind, go ahead.” He left and I laid down again, until footsteps came to my door again. “Luther, really, I don’t want to see what happened to Har- Allison?” I watched as she walked in and hugged me.

“It’s been a while, (Y/n),” she said as she looked at me closely. I opened my mouth to talk but she cut me off. “First of all, let me just tell you that I don’t blame you for Ben’s death, I don’t know why Vanya seems to think we all felt that way, and I’m sorry for not being there for you when it happened. We were all grieving and...I’m sorry.” I nodded and thanked her, when I heard the door open downstairs. 

“It’s Vanya”, I whisper, recognizing her presence from my years of training, and my stomach heaved, scared that she still hated me for not being able to keep her family together when we were younger. 

“Stay here, ok, I’ll go talk to her”, Allison states, as she rubs my shoulders reassuringly, and walks out. I hear her walk down the stairs and welcome Vanya. I go to close my door, not yet feeling up to talking to her yet, when I hear another voice.

“What is she doing here? You don’t belong here. Not after what you did.” Diego.

“Shit,” I say under my breath, as I fully close my door. When Vanya’s book came out, I dropped off the face of the Earth, moving to a new apartment, changing my phone number, and deleting any trace of social media. The book made me think that everyone hated me, and I felt responsible for our falling apart, so I did what I thought best to keep their connections alive. I disappeared. Not even two days later, a letter came to my house.

Diego had used his connections in the police force to find out where I was living. The letter talked about how livid he was that Vanya would talk about the Academy like that. He said he would try to fix it. He would tell her to get rid of the books, whatever it took. That he understood that I needed time to heal, which is why he sent a letter instead of showing up. That he would wait for me.

I remember how I felt reading that letter, like the world that had come crashing down around me, had been rebuilt just as quickly, everything looking better than it had before. But I couldn’t respond. I felt like this was the best option for all of us in the long term. I thought I wouldn’t see the Academy ever again. Yet here I am, a couple of yards away from the person that I love most in the world, and I’m hiding in my closet, hoping he doesn’t come up here. But that’s not how this works, is it?

I hear a knock on my door, and I hold my breath, hoping he wouldn’t hear me. I hear nothing for a couple of seconds, but then a knock on my closet door sends my heart to my knees.

“Housekeeping,” Diego says in a high pitched voice, and against my better judgement I laugh, tumbling out from among my clothes.

“He-,” my greeting is cut off as he hugs me tightly with one hand, and I hug him back.

“I missed you”, he says, his words muffled in my sweater. He lets go and hands me a glass of cold water, “Mom told me you were here, and said you could probably use this.”

“I missed you too,” I say, and drank the water, feeling better already. 

“I know I already told you this but,” he started, and I felt nervous again, not ready to talk about the letter, “I don’t blame you for Ben.” I exhaled quietly, my shoulders relaxing.

“Thanks, that seems to be the general consensus among the family, but hearing it from you helps.” I say, looking at his face. He looks like he’s about to say something else, but suddenly a crash from outside cuts him off. “That must be Luther, he seems to think that your father's death was...abnormal.”

“Of course he does,” he said, getting up, “let me go see what he’s up to, I’ll be right back, so don’t disappear on me again.” He makes a stern face, before grinning and walking out. That went a lot better than I expected. I hear Diego and Luther bickering in the next room over and roll my eyes. That hadn’t changed.

Leaving my room, I walk downstairs, into what could be called the living room, where I see Vanya holding her book, and I debate turning around and walking right back out when she looks up. “Hey Vanya, it’s been a while,” I say, as I watch a million emotions flash across her face. She closes it and walks up to me.

“I’m so sorry (y/n) I didn’t mean for everything to happen like that, I understand if you hate me, I’m so so sorry”, she rambles, her face covered in regret. 

“It’s okay, I forgave you a long time ago,” I said, “I was just worried that you hated me.” She looked shocked, not expecting my reaction.

“I could never hate you, I just needed to.....vent, I guess” she replied with a small smile. 

“Hello Miss Vanya, Miss (Y/n),” Pogo said as I walked in. I greeted him, leaving Pogo and Vanya to talk about her book as I left to see who else was around. I walked into the main entrance, and hearing a noise coming from the study, I went to investigate. I heard Klaus rummaging around his desk, whispering furiously as he opened and closed drawers.

“If you’re looking for money, I’d check behind the portrait, all the supervillains do it in the movies,” I tease, sitting on the desk and Klaus hits his head from under it. 

“(Y/n)!” he exclaims, “we missed you, and I’m guessing you know that I don’t hate you? Neither does Ben, you know.” I nod and he goes back to rummaging around the study when Allison walks in.

“Klaus, (y/n), what are you doing here?” she asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Nothing,” we say at the same time. Klaus greets Allison and tries to get her autograph, when you see his bracelet. You weren’t the only one that was messed up by years of cruel training tactics.

“Remember how he used to look at us? That scowl”, Klaus said.

“And his notebook? I always thought he was writing down how to get rid of us in case we ever turned against him,” I chimed in, and we all broke into laughter. Luther came in, and I started to walk out, sensing he wanted to be alone with Allison. Klaus followed, only to be stopped by Luther, and forced to empty his pockets of all the things he planned on selling. I walked out of the study, my hand trailing the wooden railing.

“Five bucks they make out in the next five minutes” Klaus says from behind me.

“They would not, come on, it’s literally the old man's funeral…..I say a couple of days”, I reply, and we shake on it. As we keep walking, Klaus pulls a gold box from his back and kisses it, happy to have gotten away with it. “Oh, you are going to be in some deep shit if Luther catches you,” I laugh, as he flashes a grin.

\--------

Luther calls us all to the living room, under the pretense of a 'family' meeting, and I take a seat on the couch next to Vanya. I take one of the decorative pillows hugging it to my chest, because the last time we were all together in the same room, it didn’t exactly go well. 

I vaguely pay attention to what Luther is talking about, as he goes on about holding a memorial service, in what he says was his Dad's favorite spot in the courtyard. I guess the old man liked one of us, because I can’t remember a time he ever stepped outside, let alone talked with me about anything outside of training or missions. 

I’m still thinking about what Luther said when Allison exclaims, “Is that my skirt?”. Klaus goes on to explain the benefits of the fresh air on his ‘bits’ and I choke, trying to suppress my urge to laugh, which rewards me with glances from everyone. Thankfully, Klaus flops backward onto my lap, and saves me from having to explain my outburst. I push him off as Luther continues his speech.

“Listen up, there’s still some important things we need to discuss, alright?”

“Like what,” replies Diego.

“Like the way he died,” Luther says pointedly.

“And here we go,” Diego interjects.

Vanya goes on to ask if it wasn’t a simple heart attack, but Luther waves it off, claiming that Hargreeves sounded paranoid and on edge. Klaus gurgles in response, because he was always like that, and I elbow his side, as he spills alcohol on my shirt, staining it. Luther turns his attention to Klaus, asking him to summon Hargreeves, and find out what happened, but I’m pretty sure Klaus is higher than the Empire State.

Luther changes tactics and instead explains that his death had to have been personal, because his monocle, which he never took off, was missing.

Diego responds,“Who gives a shit about a stupid monocle?”. I turn to look at him, but he won’t meet my eyes.

“Exactly, it’s worthless”, Luther agrees, and implies that one of us must have killed him, because nobody would take something as petty as the man’s eyeglass. I may understand where he’s coming from, but I’m offended that he thinks we’d be capable of killing our keeper. Everyone storms out of the room, annoyed by Luther’s accusations. “Allison. Jeez that went well”, he calls out, looking on as everyone leaves. I stay in my seat, watching him carefully.

“You know Luther, I think if one of us wanted him dead, it would have happened back when we were all under the same roof…some food for thought,” I say, getting up and walking upstairs to get the alcohol stain out of my shirt.

\-----

In the upstairs bathroom I furiously scrub at my shirt, as the water seeps through. It doesn’t help that I’m getting increasingly angry at Luther’s words and his callousness to think we killed Hargreeves. Realizing that anger will get me nowhere in this situation, I give up on my shirt, and resign to splash some cold water on my face, then pat my face dry as I look into the mirror. 

I realize that my hands are shaking, and take some deep breaths to calm down. From somewhere down the hall, someone is playing music. I bob my head, and move my shoulders to the sound, grabbing a toothbrush from the sink as a microphone. As I mouth the lyrics, I feel all my worries dissipate, and let myself get lost in the silliness of the situation. 

Suddenly a loud noise snaps me out of my zone, and the medicine cabinet opens, slamming into my face as the metal in it is pulled towards the source of the noise. “Shit, that hurt,” I complain, trying to clean up the blood with toilet paper, as I go out to investigate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I said I'd upload in a week, but I had time, and was inspired. Hopefully you enjoy the chapter as much I did writing it. For the most part, episodes will be split up into two parts to give space for more dialogue. Thanks for the support, and have a wonderful day.


	3. We Only See Each Other at Weddings and Funerals (Pt.2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Umbrella Academy deals with the arrival of their disappeared sibling, and the emotional fallout from unresolved feelings.

“You know I always figured that when Reggie would come back to haunt us, it would be on a lower scale, but I guess he did always have a flair for the dramatic,” I say, following everyone outside. Diego looks back at me, only now realizing that I’m pinching my nose shut to stop the blood.

“Are you ok, what happened?” he asked, getting close as he tried to help me clean up.

“I’m fine, it’s almost done healing, more importantly what the hell is that,” I point to the blue mass in the middle of the sky, the wind whipping around leaves and making it hard to see.

“Yeah what is that?” Vanya says as she comes outside.

“Don’t get too close,” Allison holds back Vanya as she joins us outside. Everyone starts talking about temporal anomalies and black holes, but its all overshadowed by the fact that I can sense that someone is inside, someone alive. 

“Hey guys, I think there’s a person in there, I can….feel them,” I say, eyes closed as I try to determine why the presence seems so familiar.

“What do you mean?” Vanya asks, but before I can answer Klaus comes running through the doors, wielding a fire extinguisher. I try to stop him, but it’s too late and he throws it into the portal. Seeing that it does nothing, Luther and Diego move to the front of the group.

“Get behind us,” Luther shouts, his arms a barrier separating us from the energy portal.

“Yeah, get behind me,” Diego repeats, standing protectively in front of me, acting as a shield. I grab his shoulders, and bury my head in his back, trying to concentrate on keeping everyone safe if anything goes wrong, and figuring out what the hell a person is doing in that portal.

Out of nowhere, the wind stops, and I hear a shout and a thud. I look up, realizing why the person felt so familiar.

“Does anyone else see little Number Five, or is that just me?” Klaus asks, and I wonder if it’s possible I got a contact high, because I see him too.

“Shit,” Five says, and we all realize this isn’t a ghost, but the real deal.

\--------

“What’s the date, the exact date?”, he says, rummaging around in the kitchen, as we all watch him from one end of the kitchen table.

“The 24th”, Vanya replies, still astonished.

“Of what?”

“March”

“Good”, he finishes, seemingly done with the conversation as he starts making a sandwich.

“So are we gonna talk about what just happened,” says Luther, incredulous that Five is really here. A quick mental scan reveals that despite falling from that height, he seems to be physically healthy, just like a kid again.

“Where’d you go”, Luther asks, desperate for answers.

“The future,” Five responds, annoyed, “It’s shit by the way.”

“Called it,” Klaus says, reaching his hand out behind him expectantly, and I groan, pulling a five from my wallet and slapping it in his open hand. I had too much hope in humanity it would seem.

“You know, I should have listened to the old man. You know jumping through space is one thing, jumping through time is a toss of the dice,” Five continues, and he explains how he managed to get back to this time.

“That makes no sense,” Diego states, lost in the explanation.

“Of course,” I whisper to myself. In the time he was gone, I had thrown myself into studying the theory of relativity, and books on anything that could help me find a way to bring him back. Everything was so interesting, and gave me answers, which is why I decided to study science to get a better grasp of my powers and help others as a doctor. It seems Five heard me, and looked at me curiously. “Med school dropout”, I reply sheepishly, and he nods apprehensively.

“You see, it would if you were smarter,” He tells Diego, who gets up, only to be stopped by Luther. As he starts talking about Delores, I lean closer to Diego.

“Don’t beat yourself up about it, I spent all my time studying and look at where that got me,” I reassure him, as he sighs, discontent.

The subject matter turns to Hargreeves’ death, and I feel queasy, getting the sense that shit is about to hit the fan, so I walk out into the hallway. Fives walks out of the kitchen and I follow him to his room, sitting on the bed as he opens his wardrobe.

“Shit,” he says, as he realizes his limited clothing options.  
“You should be glad they’re still here,” I smile, “Klaus has been thrift shopping in our wardrobes, but I’m guessing you noticed his skirt?”

He gives a short laugh, “Looks like you’re the only one around here with a brain,” he says, turning to face me. 

“Hey, they mean well,” I retort starting to walk out the door to give him some privacy, “we were all worried about you when you disappeared”.

“Not an excuse for a lack of intelligence,” He shoots back, and I close the door behind me. I walk downstairs, about to enter the living room, when I hear Five already done, talking to Vanya. It’ll take some getting used to his powers again. 

I listen in on their conversation, and silently laugh as I hear Five tell Vanya her book was good “all things considered”. She seems convinced we all hate her, and my heart aches for her. As much as her book hurt me, I can’t afford to hate the only semblance of a family I have left.

I close my eyes focusing on their quiet voices, when I am startled by a louder, closer voice.

“What was it that Mom said, heroes don’t eavesdrop?” Diego says, snapping me out of my concentration. 

I laugh and signal to myself, “That explains it, I guess.” I tell him about Five and Vanya’s conversation, and how worried I was for her. 

Diego’s face turns serious, “I’ll never forgive her for the things she said. She hurt all of us, sold us all for cash.” 

“She was hurting, and she did make some good points, you have to admit,” I replied. I agreed with her that I was at fault for not being able to heal Ben, despite what everyone said, and I covered my face with my hands, sliding down against the wall, trying to hide my red eyes threatening to spill tears.

“Hey, hey, hey. (Y/n), it wasn’t your fault. Please understand that,” Diego says, lowering to my height, and peeling my hands from my face, holding them with a gentle squeeze. “Come on, look at me, I will spend every day of the rest of my life, convincing you that this wasn’t your fault, whatever it takes.” I look into his dark eyes, and we start leaning into each other.

“Let’s get this show on the road, then,” says Five, appearing next to us, as we jump apart.  
\-----

I glance out the window, and see it’s raining, so I grab an umbrella from my room before joining the others outside. My shoes crunch on the pebbles outside, as the water spatters on the umbrella nylon. I stand next to Diego, realizing he came out without an umbrella, and stand close to him to shelter him from the rain. “You’re gonna catch a cold like that, Batman,” I tease, my breath a warm cloud in the chilly air. He thanks me, and I lean my head on his shoulder, his shirt damp on my warm cheek. 

“Did something happen?” Grace says. She’s seemed out of it since I got back, and I wonder if Luther was right, and something was up. Allison seems to notice as well.

“Dad died, remember?” she says, obviously worried. Diego tenses up, he’s always been closest to her, so it’s natural for him to worry.

“She’s fine, she just needs to recharge,” he says, and I squeeze his shoulder, trying to reassure him. Luther moves forward and unceremoniously dumps out the ashes onto the ground, where they lay in a small heap.

“Now I may be no expert, but something tells me there should be more than that,” I say, and out of the corner of my eye I see Klaus wince. Pogo begins to talk about Hargreeves, and the impact he had on his life. But when he starts claiming that the billionaire was a good person, I huff out a breath.

“He was a bad person and a worse father”, Diego says, moving out from under the umbrella.

“Diego”, Allison and I say, as I reach out to him.

“My name is Number Two,” he says, shrugging off my hand, as he gets visibly angry. Luther steps in to stop him, but it only pisses Diego off even more. They start arguing, and it just keeps escalating. I want to step in, but it reminds me of the turmoil after Ben’s death and my breakfast threatens to come back up. 

I take a step back and sit down on the concrete bench, dropping my umbrella letting the cold rain hit my face as I try to block out the sounds of their fighting. I take some deep breaths, inhale, exhale. 

“You wanna place bets?”, Klaus says, sitting down next to me as he exhales the smoke from his cigarette. “Not now,” I groan and bury my face in my hands.

“Diego, no!” Vanya’s scream pierces the air, and I open my eyes in time to see one of Diego’s knives slice into Luther’s arm. The years of training kick in and I immediately heal his wound, not even noticing the abnormally hairy skin under the ripped cloth of his shirt. 

It hurts, but it could have been worse. “I hope that wasn’t your favorite shirt,” Klaus notes, and I realize that my blood has soaked through the long sleeve I was wearing.

Luther storms inside, and Vanya goes up to Diego. “You never know when to stop, do you?” she admonishes.

“You got enough material for your sequel yet,” he answers, his voice acidic. 

“He was my father, too,” she answers, as she walks back inside. I watch as Diego leads Grace inside. Klaus stands up and goes up to the pile of ashes, speaking quietly before putting out his cigarette.

“Best. Funeral. Ever.” he states, walking up to me, and reaches a hand out, “Come on, let’s get you cleaned up.”

\-----

I enter my room, and head straight to the wardrobe, wanting to get out of my damp and blood-soaked shirt. Klaus lifts one of the floorboards from under the bed, and grabs a box of bandaids and disinfectant from my secret stash left over from when we were kids. I strip out of my shirt, and start changing.

“Have you no shame,” Klaus exclaims, mock scandalized, and I laugh. The door opens and Diego walks in, and right back out. He closes the door and knocks.

“Are you decent?” I hear from the hallway.

“For you, never.” Klaus replies, mimicking my voice, and I shove him as he throws me a wink. Diego walks in and gives him a death glare. “I guess that’s my cue to leave. If you need my I’ll be in la cuisine,” he says, stalking out through the doorway. 

“You know, I didn’t realize how much I missed him,” I say, sitting on my bed, and grabbing the first aid supplies.

“Here, let me help you,” Diego says, sitting down next to me, and cleaning off the already-healing cut as I suck in my teeth at the sting. “I’m sorry,” he says, focused on my arm.

“I don’t think I’m the one you should be apologizing to,” I murmur, “After all, you technically hit Luther.” We sit in silence for a couple of minutes. “You know, this reminds me of old times,” I laugh, remembering when Diego would come in to help me. I look up and see him looking at me intently. Just as he starts leaning in to kiss me, I suddenly stand up. “I’m kinda hungry,” I say, getting off the bed, “I think I’m gonna grab a sandwich, do you want one, too?”. I look back and Diego is staring intently at the spot I was sitting on.

“I’m fine,” he says. The hurt in his voice is palpable, and I decide to walk away before I fuck up more than I just did. I walk into the kitchen, where Five is going through all the drawers, looking for coffee. I take a seat next to Klaus at the table, watching him fiddle with the strings of a guitar. 

As Five disappears in search of caffeine, Klaus turns to Allison, “I feel like we should stop him, but then again I kinda want to see what happens.” Diego storms into the kitchen, duffel bag on his shoulder.

“All right, I guess I’ll see you all in what, ten years? When Pogo dies?” he spits out. I am suddenly very interested in the kitchen table’s wood grain. While he talks to Allison, I quietly slip out of my chair and go to sit at the top of the stairs. Allison comes out of the kitchen and sees me.

“Hey are you ok,” she says, walking up to me.

“Not really,” I reply

“Me neither, come on. We need to make up for lost time,” she says, and she grabs my hand, pulling me up to her room. She tells me about her problems with her family, the divorce, and her desperation to see Claire. I hug her as she cries, and listen to her dutifully. When she is done, she turns to me, “Your turn, what’s going on?”. I tell her about what happened in my room, and why Diego left so quickly. “You guys were so close when you were younger, what happened?” she asks. I answer her through one of her pillows, my words muffled. “What?” she says.

“Hetoldmehelovedme,” I say quickly, hoping she would understand. I look up at her, and her eyes are wide.

“Um, well that was a little unexpected. I knew how desperate he was to talk to you after Vanya wrote her book,” she said slowly, “but I guess I didn’t realize it was like that.” She sits, thinking. “You know, I can see it. He’s always been protective of you, and you of him. What’s the problem then?”

“I don’t know, it’s just. After what happened with Ben, I couldn’t stop blaming myself for not being strong enough to bring him back, and Vanya’s book just solidified that. I’m scared of telling him I love him, because it’ll hurt that much more if I can’t save him. I don’t deserve him.” I say, looking up at the ceiling. 

She seems to take in my words. “I don’t think anyone ever told you, but when you were out of it for those three days, healing from trying to heal Ben, Diego didn’t leave your side. He kept asking Mom how he could help, and when Dad made him leave to go train, he kept overexerting himself. I think he blamed himself not just for Ben, but for not being able to help you.” This was news to me, since I was in what I could only describe as an inky pool of nothingness during that time. We were both hurting, but he realized that this only made it that much more important to say how we felt.

I sat in silence, knowing what I would have to eventually do. I had to tell him why I had a hard time admitting I loved him. Allison grabbed my hand, “Now that we were able to have a conversation like mature adults, I think it’s time we take a breather. She pulls a bottle of wine from her closet, and we take turns drinking from the bottle. 

That night, I sleep better than I have in years, Allison’s breathing lulling me to sleep, as I close my eyes with a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back with part 2. I will probably spend the next couple of days outlining, for the next episode. Thank you guys for the support, and I'm sorry for the possible angst. This may be a slow burn, and I'm sorry to say I want it to be pretty slow. Hopefully you all have a great day!


	4. Run Boy Run

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (Y/n) is faced with the repercussions of her actions, and the family discovers that there may be more to their father's death than they were aware of.

The day that Five disappeared was like any other. 

“Shit, shit, shit” I chant, hearing the breakfast bell. I run over to my shoes and slip them on quickly, already hearing the footsteps of everyone else heading to the dining table. Sleep is the best medicine for the sick, and I needed a lot of it, so naturally I overslept almost daily.

I run out of the door, not slowing down until I’ve caught up, I don’t want to be punished with more sick people again. 

“Cutting it close again?” Diego whispers as I finally reach his side, and I groan, it’s too early for puns right now. I go to my usual seat next to Ben, waiting until Hargreeves decided to grace us with his presence. I look down at my plate, and my stomach rumbles, the noise drowned out by the record player. Ben however, stifles a laugh, and I look at the wall, trying to not think about how good the food smells.

Footsteps walk into the room, and Hargreeves stands behind his chair, “Sit”, he says, and I pull my chair out in relief, I wasn’t sure how much longer I could wait. The sound of forks and knives fills the room, while the record drones on. I take a drink of water to chase down breakfast, when Five stabs the table. I cough out my water, as we all turn to look at him.

“I have a question” he says, looking at his father, who seems annoyed.

“Knowledge is an admirable goal, but you know the rules, no talking during mealtimes. You’re interrupting Herr Carlson,” Hargreeves answers, but Five isn’t done.

“I want to time travel,” he retorts, and everyone goes back to eating. We’ve all heard this before. I put my utensils down, something is off. They start arguing, and Vanya shakes her head, warning Five, but he doesn’t care.

“Come back here,” Dad shouts, but the door opens, and I look at Vanya, my concern mirrored on her face. I try to feel out his location, but it grows weaker, as he walks out, and then abruptly disappears. 

I feel my food about to come up, and I turn to look at the head of the table.

“He’s gone.”

\--------

The sun is in your eyes, and you hear someone rummaging around, opening drawers and walking around the room. “Allison?” I say, squinting through the bright light.

“Hey sleepyhead,” she says, folding clothes and carefully organizing them in an open suitcase.  
“What’s going on?” I say, rubbing my eyes, as I sit up.

“I’m going to see Claire,” she says, and I can hear the excitement in her voice. A knock at the door surprises us both. Luther stands in the doorway, awkwardly waiting to speak.

“I guess I should get going,” I say, giving Allison one last glance before walking out the door. I head to my room, their muffled voices shut out as I close the door. I walk over to my dresser and look in the mirror, my face resembling someone getting over a hangover.

After changing into clean clothes, I walk down the stairs, ready to see what Grace has made for breakfast, when I hear voices.

“....Whoever took it would be absolved of any blame or consequences.” Pogo finishes, as I walk into the room. 

“Oh well, lucky bastard.” Klaus states, his eyes big despite his nonchalant posture.

“Good morning, Pogo,” I say, as he walks out the door with a terse nod. I turn back to Klaus, his desperation clear as he grabs my arm.

“Y/n you have to help me, I threw away some shit that was in that box from yesterday, and I need to get it back before Pogo castrates me,” he pleads, until I finally give in.

“Fine, but let me eat something first, I’m starving, and I’m pretty sure the only thing in your stomach is a bottle of pills,” I say, noting his attire, or lack thereof. 

In the kitchen, Grace is nowhere to be found, so I grab a slice of bread and a glass of orange juice. Klaus watches impatiently, his fingers tapping on the table as he waits for me to finish. “Have you seen Diego?” I ask, trying to get him to stop.

“No, he threw me on the street when he heard about some crime thing on his radio,” Klaus answers, still tapping.

“Oh,” I say, trying to hide my disappointment.

“Why, trouble in paradise?” he asks, suddenly interested, and I spit my juice. Seeing his raised eyebrows, I wipe my mouth and throw the glass in the sink.

“Come on, let’s go fix your mistake, or you can kiss your balls goodbye,” I say, heading out the door.

\---------

Piles of trash fly from the dumpster as Klaus frantically searches for some missing papers. “Find anything yet?” I say, moving some of the garbage with my foot. He whines as he continues pushing around the bags of trash. 

The doors open, and Luther walks out. “Where are you headed?” I call after him. 

“I’m going to look for Diego,” he answers, walking briskly toward the car.

“Let me come with you, I need to talk to him, too,” I say, jogging up to the passenger door. Klaus looks up from his search, affronted, and he yells at me and Luther steps on the gas.

“So, how did your talk with Allison go?” Luther swerves the car and I hang on for dear life. I’m guessing it’s a sore subject. I don’t feel like dying just yet, so I decide to shut up, and watch the buildings pass by the window.

Luther pulls up to a boxing gym, and we walk inside. An older guy shouts instructions at two people sparring in the ring. When he sees Luther walk up, he immediately tries to recruit him. With his huge size, it’s no doubt he’d be good at the sport.

“Oh, no, I’m looking for information on one of the guys that uses your gym. Diego Hargreeves?” he says, remembering the reason we came. According to the manager, he cleans up, in exchange for living in the back room. “Ok, thanks,” Luther says, heading to the back. I follow him, the manager’s recruitment pleas drowned out as we round the corner. 

“I feel like I’m choking,” I say, the hot air suffocating as we near the boiler room. We walk inside, and I look around at Diego’s life for the past couple of years. A poster in the room catches my attention. “Hey Luther, look at this”.

“Well now I feel like shit,” he says, realizing that it’s impossible Diego killed Hargreeves, since he was fighting at the time. I hum in response, continuing to walk around. “Hopefully he comes back soon.”

“Yeah, I’m kind of hungry, Klaus dragged me out to find Dad’s boo-” I stop talking when I see Luther turn around, eyebrows raised. “Never mind,” I finish, sitting down on Diego’s bed. I swing my legs watching Luther pick up a book, sitting down in a chair. 

A couple of hours pass, and I struggle to keep my eyelids open, the warmth of the room making it hard to stay awake. 

CHK “Ow what the-” Luther says, his ear bleeding. I see him pull a knife out of the drawer next to him. 

The door opens and Diego walks in. “I could smell it was you,” he says, walking down the stairs.  
“You could have killed me,” Luther interjects.

“If I wanted you dead, you’d be dead.” Luther gives him his knife, and Diego barely seems to register that I'm here. I look at him, and his eyes flash with an emotion you can’t distinguish. Regret? Shame? Anger? 

“Hey Diego,” I whisper with a small wave, but he ignores, and continues to talk to Luther as he hangs up his knife belt. Luther confronts him about his whereabouts, showing him the poster I found.

“Well, I shouldn’t have to prove my innocence to you….or anyone else in this family,” he says, annoyed. “Now you have a nice day, brother” Luther heads for the door, and I realize it’s not or never. I gather up all of my courage, and get up from the bed, my nails digging into my palms.

“Can we talk...about what happened earlier?” I ask, but Diego won’t even look at me. 

“I’d suggest you leave, too, you’re good at it by now,” he says, his voice acidic. I open my mouth to speak again, but I know I hurt him, and the best thing I can do is give him time. I head toward the stairs, and as I reach the door I turn around.

“I’m sorry Diego, I didn’t mean to hurt you, and I want to make things right. I’ll wait as long as it takes,” I say. His shoulders tense up, the words he told me months ago hitting him. I close the door behind me, and see Luther waiting for me out in the hallway. He coughs awkwardly.

“Do...you want to ta-”

“Not right now,” I cut him off, “but thanks big guy”, I say patting his arm thankfully.

\-------

As I walk back into the Academy, I head for the roof. I know Allison is home, but I want to be alone right now.

As I open the door to the outside, I feel a breeze pick up, and regret not bringing a sweater. I head to the railing, leaning on the cold stone as I take a deep breath of cold air, my chest feeling empty.

Down on the street, people go about their day, cars going to their destinations. How can something so insignificant in the grand scheme of things, hurt this much? How can I stay here, if I’m only going to keep hurting the people I love? How can I be so selfish, worried about myself when there are real problems out in the world? My mind keeps spiraling, and leaving starts seeming like a good idea, when I smell smoke. Allison.

I close my eyes, trying to listen to the faint voices underneath me. Allison sounds upset. I should go talk to her, misery enjoys company, after all. 

I head inside, and follow the sounds down the hall, knocking on the door of the open room they’re coming from. “Allison?”

“Hey (y/n),” she says, turning around.

“What is this place?” I look at the stacks of screens, their fuzzy video lighting up the dark room.

“I guess Dad recorded us as kids,” she answers, turning back to the flickering screens.

“As if I didn’t feel enough like a guinea pig,” I laugh.

“Tell me about it. But looking back at these videos is nostalgic.” On one screen we’re running around, playing some form of tag. Vanya is in another room, playing the violin. I wish I could go back in time, and talk to her more. I shouldn’t have taken her for granted. I look up and see another screen, where Diego and I are laughing, probably after hearing a funny joke. 

Allison moves and grabs another tape, and I stand behind her as the VCR whirs to life. “Is that...”

“Oh god. Dad,” she answers, “Where’s Luther, we need to tell him.”

“I don’t know, I haven’t seen him since we got back from the gym.”

“Can’t you, I don’t know, find him with your power?” she says, gesturing to my head.

“I only get a general sense of where you guys are, I’m not exactly a GPS, A,” I huff, and we decide to split up, that way we’ll find him faster.

As I’m about to finish searching the top floor, I hear voices, and turn around the corner, where Allison is with Luther and...Five?

“What’s wrong?” I ask, walking up behind them. Luther reaches out for Five, and Five grabs his wrist suddenly. 

The look on his face is of someone much older than 13, and he hesitates, before spitting out,

“There’s nothing you can do, there’s nothing any of you can do.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise! This chapter was shorter so I decided to upload it today, as an end of the week present! I hope you all had a great week, and I'll see you soon. Thank you for the support.


	5. Extra Ordinary (Pt. 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Umbrella Academy deals with the news regarding Hargreeves' death, as Five struggles to find answers.

I didn’t know that Vanya had written a book until it showed up in my mailbox, the packaging beat up from being shoved into the tiny metal box. She had always been mysterious as a child, and kept to herself, so I was interested to learn what I could about her, even if it was through the pages of a book.

I read it in three days. I would have finished it sooner, but the more I read, the harder it was to read. She had aired out all of your dirty laundry, for a world of strangers. None of it hit me as hard as the chapter about Number Six. Reading it made me feel like someone had taken a vacuum to your lungs, all the oxygen gone.

It was like Vanya had picked every single regret from your mind, and put them on the page.

‘She was supposed to protect them, but when it came time for her to do her job, she fell short. It was like she didn’t even try.’

Something about seeing those sentences on the page, made it that much more real, and I threw the book at the wall, wanting to get as far away from her words as possible. My breath rattled in my chest, and I crawled up against my bed, closing my eyes, the words emblazoned on my retinas.

I jumped out of bed, grabbing my phone off my desk, and punched in the numbers for the only voice I wanted to hear right now. But wait. If Vanya felt this way, who’s to say that everyone else doesn’t, too. It all makes sense, I was too blind to see it, too naive in thinking they wouldn’t be angry with me. Too blind to see that it was all my fault.

Hands shaking, I place my phone back down, and my body moves by itself, like a puppet controlled by strings from above. I grab a suitcase from my closet, and throw clothes in, using my weight to make them fit as it threatens to spill. 

I buy my landlord’s silence with a stack of cash, paying the rent for the rest of the year, and head to the streets. I delete all my accounts, and throw my phone in a nearby puddle of water. 

By some miracle, I manage to find an apartment that’s a couple blocks away. It’s a little expensive but I’m desperate, and so is the owner, who lets me move in right then. As I sit down on the bare wooden floor I put all of my feelings into boxes, throwing them out like old furniture, as I take a deep breath of my new life.

\---------

Luther replays the footage for what seems like the 20th time. “Er, what is she doing? The tea, did she poison him?” he turns back to us.

“I don’t know,” Allison replies. The video lacks the answers we need. Context, motive, and what exactly happened.

“He thought people were out to get him. I guess maybe he was right,” Luther says, looking at the screen.

“But Mom? I mean, she’s not capable of….is she?” Allison asks, looking to me. I think of all the years she took care of us. The medicine she would secretly give Klaus and Diego to help me, making warm milk when I couldn’t sleep from the pain. I can’t afford to lose Grace, but she was with him for all those years. She had to deal with his abuse when we left. I can’t blame her, but I also need answers.

We decide to go talk to her, which is how we end up in the kitchen, where she’s humming as she makes breakfast. As Luther asks her about the day Hargreeves died, I look at her face carefully, trying to see if anything about what he says affects her, but her face remains clear. 

It isn’t until Luther asks specifically about that night that her face clouds over, her blank eyes not matching the smile, but she recovers quickly.

“Did you ever...get angry at Dad?” Luther asks. Her response is too quick, too rehearsed, almost robotic. Allison realizes this and asks about her time alone in the house.

“There were times, when you kids kept me oh so busy, and then..” her face turns dark again, but she changes the subject as she brings us our plates. Something about her attitude made me lose my appetite, and I push my plate away slowly.

\-------

Luther and Allison want to talk, so I head upstairs to give them some privacy, when I hear someone hiss down the hall. 

I walk over to Five’s room and knock on the door, watching as he haphazardly stitches up a nasty cut.

“Let me help you,” I say, and he looks up as his wound fades away.

“Well, I guess this is useless.” He pulls the thread from his arm, tossing me the box of bandaids on his bed so I can stop the bleeding. He looks at me closely, before speaking,”Are you busy?”

“Not right now, what’s up?” 

“Come with me, I’ll explain on the way,” he says, opening the window as he steps out onto the fire escape.

“Cool.” I follow him out, trying to keep up as he quickly descends the stairs.

“Damn it, where’s Dad’s stuff?!” Klaus shouts from the dumpster below. Shit, I forgot he was still looking for the books. With my luck, he’s probably going to drag me into helping him again.

“You know there are easier ways out of the house guys?” he says, leaning on the edge of the garbage bin.

“This one involved the least amount of talking, or so I thought,” Five shoots back.

“Hey hey hey. You need any more company today?” I turn to Five, raising an eyebrow.

“Later,” he says waving off my questions, while Klaus takes a bite out of a moldy donut to avoid any questions. I fake gag, disgusted, as Five turns around.

“C’mon, let’s go,” he says, as Klaus calls out after us, “Maybe I just wanted to spend time with my family.”

“I didn’t think I’d be crossing grand theft auto off my bucket list today, but here we are.” I climb into the passenger seat. Five turns the car on and as we drive, he tells me about his mission to figure out the owner of a fake eye, that the fate of the world depends on it. I open my mouth to ask where he got it, when I’m suddenly cut off.

“Oh shit,” he groans, pulling open his duffle bag.

“Who’s the girl?”

“Delores, I’m sorry you were in there for so long.” Five lifts the mannequin out of the bag tenderly, she’s clearly important to him. I watch as he starts a conversation with her. Clearly he’s been through some shit, and this mannequin seems to be his coping mechanism. It could be worse.

“Yes, it’s about the eye thing,” he tells her, “This is the place it was made, or….will be made. We just have to wait.”

“Something tells me you weren’t exaggerating, when you said the fate of the world depends on ...this,” I say, gesturing to the eye in his hand. His face turns serious, and he quickly turns to the mannequin again.

“I heard you the first time, Delores. I know, I know.” he looks at her exasperatedly, throwing up his hands, “Fine, I get it!” He turns to me, mentally preparing himself for something. “I know I said the future was shit….but the truth is there is no future. When I jumped, there was nothing left.” In any other situation, I’d think he was joking, but the expression on his face stops me dead in my tracks.

“I’d say we need to tell the others, but your attitude last night tells me that’s not going to help, is it?” Five shakes his head, and tells me about what he saw. That when he arrived home, the academy was in ruins, and among them, our dead bodies. My blood runs cold, we were robbed of our childhoods to prevent something like this, and for what? I want to live, I want to be able to see everyone as they go about their lives, and I want to be able to grow old. To grow old with Diego. He needs to know how I feel before we all die.

I turn to Five, wondering how he managed to function with all the stress of the world on his shoulders. No wonder he felt like he had to do this alone, just the thought of the world as we know it coming to an end, sent my brain into spirals.

“You know, I’m glad you trusted me to help you. I can’t believe you went so long trying to solve this on your own.” I tell him, but Five’s mind is a million miles away. His face is tense, and he starts shaking, mouth contorting in a silent scream. “..Five?” I shake his arm, trying to bring him back.

“Five! (Y/n)! GUYS!”, Luther’s shouts bring Five out of his episode, and I open the door. “Can I come in?” he says, signaling toward my seat. I move to the back, as Luther struggles to fit in.

“Hey, a little privacy guys, we’re really hitting it off back here. Wanna join us (y/n)?” Klaus says, hugging Delores tightly.

“Stop that,” I slap his arm and take Delores, putting her back on the bag.

“Didn’t (y/n) tell you?” Luther asks, turning to look back at me.

“I guess I got a little distracted. I mean, you’ve become the Oprah of labels,” I retort, “You’re a murderer, you’re a murderer, and guess what you’re a murderer too!” I gesture towards the three of them, and Five rolls his eyes.

“What is she talking about?”

“Grace may have had something to do with Dad’s death.” Luther answers, “I need you both to come back to the academy. It’s important.”

Five scoffs, “You have no idea what’s important,” and before Klaus can start talking about his adventures with chocolate pudding, Five kicks him out of the van. I get out, too, I can use some fresh air, and they could use the privacy. 

I lean against the van, watching as Klaus saunters into a corner store. Knowing him, and his empty pockets, there’s no way this ends well. I open the back door of the van again.

“Hey guys, I hate to interrupt, but you may want to put the car in ignition before Klaus gets us all arrested,” and like clockwork, Klaus bursts out of the store, arms full of stolen goods.

“Hey bitches!” he shouts, nearly getting run over by a taxi.

Five groans, “Now I’m starting to wonder if that was the wisest decision.”


	6. Extra Ordinary (Pt. 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Umbrella Academy is forced to make a difficult decision, and intruders come looking for Five.

Luther and Five reached a compromise, and I went back to the Academy, promising to report back once the meeting was over. 

Back at the house, Luther was playing the video tape for everyone. Meanwhile, I was sitting in a chair, trying to stop myself from jumping up and telling them about the apocalypse. I know that Five probably had the right idea, so instead I grab a glass of water, taking sips periodically to shut up.

After going through the footage again, Diego proves to Luther that Grace didn’t poison his tea, but instead took the monocle. Luther defends his position, asking why he didn’t find it on her, and Diego is forced to admit that he took it. 

Everyone explodes, and he defends himself, saying that he knew Luther would lose his shit if he found out, just like he’s doing right now. Vanya tries defending Grace, “Mom was, well designed to be a caretaker, but...also a protector,” she interjects. Luther thinks this over.

“Well, if her hardware is degrading then...we need to turn her off,” he states, and I slam my glass down, not believing the bullshit spewing from his mouth.

“Woah, woah, woah. She’s not just a vacuum cleaner you can throw in a closet. She feels things, I’ve seen it,” Diego says, ready to throw hands.

“He’s right.” Everyone goes silent, surprised I had finally spoken. “You know Luther, for someone so hell-bent on calling us murderers, you sure are a little too eager to pull the trigger on your Mom. I can’t believe you’d kill the one person that took care of you like a parent, over someone who wouldn’t give a damn about you if you didn’t have powers.” As I finish speaking, I realize my hands are shaking.

Luther is silent for a minute, he’s never seen you so angry before. Nobody has. “She just stood there...and watched our father die,” he finally says. It’s baffling how far he’s willing to protect someone who left him alone on the moon for so many years.

“I’m with Luther” I whip around, hurt by Allison’s decision, but not shocked.

“Surprise surprise,” Diego says, voicing my thoughts.

“Shut up,” Allison says. We all turn to Vanya, who seems to shrink under our gaze.

“I-I don’t--”

“Yeah, she shouldn’t get a vote,” Diego cuts her off.

“I was gonna say that I agree with you,” she shoots back.

“Ok, she should get a vote.” Diego turns to Klaus, who starts ranting about being kicked out of the van.

“I’m with Diego, because screw you! And if Ben were here he’d agree with me,” he says, before hissing to his right.

“So that’s three..to two.”

“Four,” I argue, “over my dead body will you kill her.” 

“Your vote doesn’t count. You’re not a part of this family, you were never even adopted. The Umbrella Academy was basically just boarding school for you!” Diego says. I’m pissed because that doesn’t erase the years of abuse that I went through, but I decide to stay quiet. FIghting will get us nowhere, especially with the end of the world drawing near.

Allison seems to sense the tension in the room, and suggests putting the vote on hold until Five gets back, we owe each other that, but this is probably the last thing on his mind. Everyone walks out the door, leaving Vanya, Diego and I left standing in the room.

I look at Diego, we need to talk before it’s too late, but over his shoulder, I see Grace. Vanya and Diego follow my gaze, and go up to her. Her face is blank like earlier, but she quickly says, “You guys seem upset, I’ll go make some cookies.” I want to go after her, but if I want everyone to stay alive long enough to help her, then my best bet is to go back and help Five.

Upstairs in my room, I throw some clothes and water in a bag, since he seems intent on staying there for as long as necessary. That’s when I hear the footsteps.

They’re too cautious to belong to anyone from the Academy, and I don’t recognize their energy. I slowly peek out of the door, and see two strangers in metal masks. I quickly hide again, thinking of the best way to warn the others without alerting the intruders, but it’s too late.

Outside, I hear the guns blazing, bullets ripping through the wall, as a loud clang echoes through the hall. Diego. I run out of the room, and see him fight whoever’s in the blue mask. He slams his head on the mask. I wince, as the metal thuds.

“Shoot him, Chacha,” the guy shouts, and Pink Mask, who must be Chacha, kneels down, aiming to kill. Oh hell no. I run up behind her and wombo combo the hell out of the back of her knees.

“Run Diego!” I shout, as I turn the corner, hiding behind a pillar, but they go after him anyways, and he dives for the first floor sofa and ducks behind a table. The intruders run down the stairs and start firing in his direction. They’re getting dangerously close to his hiding spot, so I grab a vase off a table, and throw it at Blue Mask’s head.

“Over here assholes!” I shout, before ducking behind another pillar as bullets spray. One catches me in the arm, but the adrenaline stops me from feeling any pain just yet. Luckily, Luther and Allison arrive, and start kicking their asses, and Diego joins them. They run away as Chacha starts shooting again.

I catch my breath, chest heaving, and I look over the railing again. Vanya walks in, and the Blue Mask guy creeps up behind her, ready to swing a mace. I run around the corner, directly above where they are, and jump off the railing, tackling Blue Mask as he swings wildly, catching me in the face. I can’t see out of my left eye, and I can taste blood. 

I try choking his neck, but he knocks me off, and I land on the table. Everything is starting to look like our home videos. Through my swollen eyes I see Vanya, watching helplessly, as Blue Mask is about to attack her.

Luther comes in and grabs him, pulling him into the foyer as they swing each other around. I get up slowly, the ringing in my ears threatening to drive me crazy, but I need to help him. Allison and Diego beat me to it, and help him up as Blue Mask runs away. 

I barely make it to the doorway when I look up and see Chacha looking at the chandelier above them. 

Everything seems to move in slow motion. Chacha cuts the chain holding the chandelier, and I start sprinting, ready to push everyone out of the way. Luther shoves Diego and Allison away from his side, realizing too late what I plan on doing. I lunge to tackle him, but he’s too big. Luther hugs me and hunches over, his back to the ceiling as the chandelier crashes on us.

I’m sandwiched between him and the floor, but Luther stopped most of the weight of the chandelier.

“Are you okay,” he coughs out, and I hum in response, it hurts to breathe in the small space. Allison screams Luther’s name, and Diego mine, but it sounds like I’m underwater. My eyelids feel really heavy, and I just want to stop fighting to keep them open.

Luther lifts off the chandelier, and I’ve barely gotten up when I’m crushed by two arms.

“You idiot, y-you c-can’t die, w-while I’m s-still angry at y-you,” Diego says, and I breathe in his shirt, suddenly feeling ok with the world ending if I go out like this.

“You’re the idiot that slammed his face into a metal mask.” I tease, my voice rasping. He hugs me tighter, and I close my eyes. I pull back after a while, remembering we’re not alone and see everyone looking at Luther. “Am I dead, or is Luther really a gorilla now?” No one speaks, and Luther walks away, trying to hide himself as he retreats upstairs quickly.

Diego leads me slowly to the sofa in the living room, where Allison and Vanya are sitting dumbfounded at our luck. “I’ll be back,” he promises, and he leaves the room.

“Who were those guys?” Vanya asks, eyes wide.

“I don’t know. But we are lucky to be alive.” Allison replies, and looks over at me, “Barely.”

“Tell me about it,” I groan, “Now, if you’ll excuse me.” I close my eyes, ready to fall asleep.

“Hey, hey, you can’t go to sleep,” Vanya says, patting my face until I open my eyes again, “you hit your head pretty hard…….Thank you for saving me. I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

“All in a day’s work,” I say, with a small salute. Diego walks back in, and sees Vanya sitting next to me.

“What are you still doing here?” he asks sharply.

“I’m just trying to help,” she answers.

“No, you could’ve been killed,” he gestures toward me, “you could’ve gotten (Y/n) killed.”

“Issokay, we’ll all be dead soon enough,” I reply, my words slurring together, as I shut my eyes to shield myself from the bright light. Allison pushes me awake.

“....She is a liability,” Diego continues.

“Allison,” Vanya looks at her with pleading eyes.

“I think what he’s trying to say is that this kind of stuff is dangerous,” she says. I try protesting, but I can barely keep my eyes open, let alone speak. Vanya storms out.

“Come pack, Vnaya,” I say, but the words don’t make any sense. Allison goes after her.

“It’s for the best,” Diego says, and I try to get up, I need to stop her. We need to be together if the world is going to end. As soon as I get on my feet, the world is knocked out from under me, and Diego catches me before I hit myself again.

“(Y/n), you’re hurt, you need to stay here okay?” I look up at him, and his eyes are red, tears threatening to spill. 

I brush away a single tear, “I’m sorry,” I whisper. He takes my hand and holds me to his chest. I close my eyes, falling asleep to the sound of his breathing, which hitches with repressed sobs. How is it that for someone that was born to heal people, I end up managing to hurt them instead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter done! Thank you again for the support, I hope you enjoy reading, and have a wonderful weekend.


	7. Man on the Moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A major death brings back memories of the past.

“Vanya!” I say gasping as I wake up. But I’m not downstairs anymore. The sun peeks through the curtains in my room, and I realize I’m not alone.

“Hey, how are you feeling,” Diego says, startled awake from his seat next to my bed, as he rubs the sleep out of his eyes.

“It could be worse. I could be feeling like I took a mace to the head, so I guess I’m good. Is Vanya okay, where’s Luther? Allison? We need to tell Five what happened,” I say, pulling back the blanket, and jumping off the bed. Then I remember what happened before I fell asleep. “How are you...I mean…”

“I’m fine,” he answers looking away, “but Mom didn’t make it. I guess the intruders got to her when we weren’t paying attention.” That didn’t make sense. I had been upstairs and seen the two people in masks run downstairs for the rest of the night, but it’s all irrelevant right now. Clearly he’s upset, and I don’t think focusing on technicalities will make much of a difference. Instead, I squeeze him tightly. “I’m sorry. I should have tried to get her to safety while I was upstairs.” 

“It’s not your fault, we were all busy fighting off those guys,” he says. I nod, not saying anything, and move away to look for my shoes, my mind racing. It’s too much of a coincidence that the intruders arrived only a couple of days after Five. Could he have something to do with them? He needs to know about what happened.

Outside, I can hear clattering, and someone shuffling around in Five’s room, and go to find out what’s going on.

Inside, Luther is rummaging through Five’s drawers, Pogo watching a little ways off. 

“What are you doing here?” Diego says, walking in behind me. Luther freezes, caught in the act.

“Uh...do you know about Mom?” he says hesitantly.

“Well it looks like you got what you wanted...one way or another, right?” Diego replies cautiously.

“Want to tell me what you guys are doing here?” Luther answers defensively, trying to gain the higher ground in the conversation.

“Five needs to know what happened last night,” I say, while Diego says, “Looking for Five.” Luther seems annoyed, clearly he had been doing the same thing, and wanted to feel in charge.

“Let me guess, you’re gonna save the day?” he tells Diego mockingly.

“It’s what I do. Asshole,” he answers, ready to walk out the door.

“Really? Last I checked, you mopped floors.” This sets Diego off, and he starts taunting Luther in retaliation, who gets so angry that he punches a hole in Five’s wardrobe. “Where were you? You and everyone else in this family? You walked out.” Luther says, clearly agitated. 

“And thank Christ I did, or I would have ended up just like you. Let me ask you a question, when you watch one of those nature shows….” Diego says carefully. We don’t have time for this right now.

“Diego, please..” Pogo says, trying to warn him, but he doesn’t listen.

“Does it turn you o-”

“ENOUGH!” I yell, pushing them both apart, “Can you guys shut up already?! Five is literally stressed out of his mind trying to keep us all from dying, and you guys are wasting your time on this….this pissing contest? You guys are unbelievable! I’m going with Five, at least he has his priorities in order!” I slam the door open, storming down the stairs and out the main entrance.

“(Y/n), wait up!” Diego says, jogging after me, “I’m sorry, it’s just...Luther pisses me off..”

“Hey, if anyone is an asshole, it’s you,” Luther says, as he catches up.

“If you guys are coming along, you both have to agree to either get along or shut up, because I don’t want to get a migraine from hearing you guys fighting every single second.” I hiss, and they both stay quiet as we head out to where Five’s van was yesterday.

\-------

“This is it. He’s still here. This is Five’s van,” Luther says as we finally reach the car.

“Go, go” Diego says as they both run up to the passenger door.

“He’s not here guys,” I tell them, but they’re too busy trying to open the door. I sigh and go around to the back. It’s unlocked. I get into the van and look around at what Five left behind for anything that could be connected to last night’s intruders.

Luther climbs into the passenger seat after trying to shove himself in at the same time as Diego. “How’d you get in here so fast?”

“The back door was unlocked.” I shrug, as Diego opens the side door. We all move stuff around until Diego speaks up.

“I know where to find Five,” he says, showing us a page from Five’s notebook. I could have told them that a while ago, but I feel like Luther and Diego could use a victory today, so I follow them over to the library.

\--------

Once inside, I walk upstairs as quickly as one can in a library, while Luther and DIego split up to ‘cover more ground’. As I get closer, I follow the voices of women threatening to call security. 

Five is curled up in the corner, surrounded by open books, his arm thrown around Delores. I lean in to shake his arm, but I’m knocked back by the smell of alcohol emanating off him. I only now realize the empty bottle of vodka at his feet, not a single drop left. This is bad...really bad.

“Hey...guys? Diego? Luther?” I whisper loudly. I don’t want to get kicked out. I put Five’s arm around my shoulder and try to pick him up, but drop Delores, and pick her up, but drop Five. They’re not heavy, but I can only hold so much at a time. Footsteps round the corner as I try to lift Five again.

“Um..is he..? Luther says looking at us.

“Drunk as a skunk.” Diego says, incredulous.

“Yes, very funny, now help me get him out of here before the cops come and arrest us for giving alcohol to minors.” Luther comes over and picks him up like a baby, and I grab Delores.

By the time we walk out of the library doors, it’s dark out. “So, where to now?” I ask.

“Well, we can’t go back to the house. It’s not secure. Those psychopaths could come back any moment.” Luther states.

“My place is closer, and no one will look for him there.” Diego says, leading the way. Five burps and Luther holds him out, threatening to kill him if he throws up. Five laughs in response.

“I drank that whole bottle didn’t I? That’s what you do when the world you love goes bye-bye. Poof. It’s gone.” Jesus, I leave him alone for a couple of hours, and he spirals into an existential crisis. Luther tells Five about the visit from the masked intruders, ignoring his previous statement.

“Hazel and Chacha?” Five says, interested. Diego turns around, surprised Five recognizes them. “You know, I hate code names.” he continues, “Ah, the best of the best. Except for me, of course.” Even when he’s drunk he manages to be a proud bastard.

“The best at what.” Diego asks, desperate for answers.

“You know, Delores always said she hates when I drink, says it makes me surly.” Five says, completely ignoring him.

“I need you to focus. What do this Hazel and Chacha want? We just want to protect you.” Diego says. Five gets annoyed and goes on about how he doesn’t need protection, because of all the people he’s killed, and that he is basically the Four Horsemen.

“Very intimidating, coming from the drunk 13-year-old,” I answer, and Five turns around, ready to fight back. Instead, he vomits all over my shoes. “What the fuck, Five. Here, take your stupid doll.” I toss Delores onto his stomach as I breathe through my mouth, trying not to gag. I walk carefully into the gym, trying not to spill anything, and throw my shoes into Diego’s sink. After washing off most of Five’s lunch, I hear the springs in the bed creak as Luther lays him down.

“If I didn’t know he was such a prick, I’d say he looks almost adorable in his sleep.” Diego says, looking down at him. 

“As soon as that little asshole wakes up, I’m going to slap the shit-eating grin off his face. This was my last pair of shoes.” I threaten, watching as he sleeps peacefully.

“Well, don’t worry. He’ll sober up eventually. Be back to his normal, unpleasant self.” Luther answers.

“Yeah, I can’t wait that long. I need to find out what his connection to these lunatics is before someone else dies.” Diego says, pacing around the room. Suddenly, thumps can be heard walking towards us, and he signals for everyone to be quiet. As the footsteps stop in front of the door, Diego opens it suddenly, knife aimed.

“If you throw another one of those goddamn knives at me, I’m pressin’ charges,” the owner says. He tells Diego that someone left a message for him, a detective. “I think she said her name was, Blotch, or something.”

“Patch?” Diego clarifies, looking serious, “She needs my help.” I turn to Luther, confused, and he shrugs. I guess he doesn’t know her either. Al gives Diego directions to a motel.

“She said she found your brother.”

“Klaus,” we all say simultaneously. Diego heads out the door, and I run after him, leaving Luther to deal with Five.

\---------

At the motel, I follow Diego as he sneaks toward the only open door. I take deep breaths, readying myself to fight whoever’s inside. After waiting for movement, and hearing nothing, Diego jumps into the doorway, knives ready. Instead of going in, he stops in his tracks, and the look on his face makes my stomach drop.

“No, no, no, Eudora, no! Eudora!” he yells, his voice broken as he runs inside. I go after him, when I see the body. Her blood stains the carpet, and when he turns her over, I can see the bullet wound in her chest. Diego pounds the floor, his anger filling the room. I gasp, scared by the sudden noise in the otherwise silent room.

In that instant, he looks up, as if remembering I’m here. “(Y/n), you have to help her. Please! You have to bring her back!” he says, visibly desperate. I go over to him and grab her wrist, checking for a pulse, while Diego holds her face, “I was on the way. Why didn’t you wait?”

“I...I can’t, Diego...it’s..it’s too late,” I whisper. Her heart stopped beating long before we got here.

“How can you say that….you haven’t even tried!” he pleads. I put my hand directly over the bullet wound. Hopefully direct contact will be more effective. I imagine my hand pulling the wound closed, and my chest starts to ache, as the wound begins healing. But then it stops. Nothing is happening. I can heal the wound all I want, but she isn’t here anymore. Still, I can’t afford to give up just yet. I start doing compressions. All I need to do is get her heart to start pumping again, right? But no matter how many times I repeat the cycle, her pulse remains nonexistent.

“Diego,” he looks up frantically, “she’s gone….I tried everything I could...but it’s not working...I can’t bring her back...I ca-” I’m cut off by a guttural scream leaving his throat, and he hugs her body to his chest. I reach out to reassure him, putting my hand on his back.

“Just go,” he whispers, voice shaking.

“But..I want to stay...and..and help.” He slaps my hand away.

“You couldn’t save Ben, and you couldn’t save her, so tell me, what exactly are you going to do?” I feel like I’ve been punched in the gut. Diego looks up, realizing he’s gone too far. My eyes sting, and I get up, running out the door as the cruiser lights flash against the walls. I ignore his voice as he calls after me, and run as far as my legs will take me before collapsing on the sidewalk. 

The water on the concrete soaks my clothes and for a second, I’m fine staying like this forever. Who cares about the apocalypse?. At least that would hurt less than whatever is happening right now. I sob loudly, my tears mixing with the rainwater, as the sun starts rising. 

But what about everybody else? Everyone in the Umbrella Academy, everyone in the universe. People that are going about their own lives. They don’t deserve to die because one person is too busy crying about their own problems. It isn’t fair to them.

I shakily stand up, wringing out my hair, shivering in the frigid air. I can’t afford to be selfish with the end of the world so close at hand. With deep breaths, I put one foot in front of the other. 

I can’t be mad at Diego, he lost someone important to him. Of course he was going to lash out, and of course he’d be angry that I couldn’t help his friend. 

That doesn’t mean he deserved to talk to me like that. That doesn’t mean that I want to talk to him just yet. 

But I understand what he’s going through, and I understand that right now, he needs time.

I need time. 

And besides, Five is probably going to wake up soon, and I still owe him for messing up my shoes.


	8. Number Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Five is forced to use his last resort to get another step closer to stopping the apocalypse.

When I get back to the gym, the sun is already up. I make my way inside, and lean against the boiler room door, listening to see who’s inside. Five and Luther are talking, and I can’t hear Diego, so I open the door.

“Former employer? What’s this about? And don’t give me any of that ‘It’s none of your business’ crap, okay?” Luther says, agitated.

“Well, it’s a long story” Five answers.

“I’d say we have the time but I’m not so sure of that anymore,” I say, walking down the stairs. Luther looks up, and sees the bloodstain on my shirt.

“(Y/n)? Where were you? Diego just left, are you o-” I hold a hand up, we don’t have time to talk about this right now.

“What are we dealing with Five?” I ask taking a seat on the edge of the bed. He tells us about being recruited by the Commission, all the people he killed working there, and how he managed to escape to get back and stop the apocalypse.

“So you were a hit man?” Luther says carefully.

“Yeah. We took out anyone who messed with the timeline”

“But that’s murder,” Luther protests. Five and I groan.

“Something tells me he didn’t have much of a choice, Luther” I say, leaning back against the wall.

“There’s no good or bad people, just people going on with their lives. But when the world ends, everyone dies, even us.” Five tells Luther what he saw, and I watch as his face goes from incredulous to worried. 

“So what do we do now?” he asks after Five is done.

“We go home,” I say carefully, “and come up with a plan to stop the apocalypse. And a change of clothes.”

\--------

Back in my room, I clean up to look like I’ve actually slept in the past 48 hours. It’s probably not a good idea to have a shirt with a dead cop’s blood on it, so I grab a waste basket and burn it on the fire escape, hoping no one notices. As the last of the cloth finishes burning, I hear a knock at the door.

“Hey,,(Y/n). I know you probably don’t want to talk to me right now. But can you just hear me out...please?” Diego takes a deep breath, and continues, “When you left, I didn’t have anyone to talk to, especially not anyone from the Academy, and Patch was…..well, she was there for me, and listened to me….and...she was a good friend.” HIs voice starts wavering, and he stops, clearing his throat. “So, when I saw her there, I just….I lost it. She didn’t deserve to die like that….she deserved better….and so do you. I’m sorry for what I said to you….I promise I didn’t mean it. I’m sorry, and I’ll try to make it up to you by killing those assholes. So... just….just, wait for me?”

It takes every ounce of my resolve to not open the door. I wait until he walks away, counting the seconds before peeking out the door. Seeing the hallway empty, I go over to Five’s room. We need to strategize.

The first thing I see is the wall covered from ceiling to floor in math. Looking closely at the equations, I realize this may be out of my reach. I sit down at his desk, clearly he’s on a roll right now. He continues mumbling to himself when Luther walks in.

“Who are you talking to? What is this?” he says, confused.

“Probability maps,” Five answers dismissively.

“Probability of what?”

“Of whose death could save the world. I’ve narrowed it down to four.” FIve explains, pointing to the names as he explains how even the slightest actions can alter the timeline.

“Who’s to say it’s not us?” I hypothesize, and Five turns around, realizing I’m here, “I mean, isn’t you coming back here a major alteration? Knowing our luck as of late, we’re probably the assholes that end up getting everyone killed.” Five waves it off, his faith in math stronger than speculation, as he pulls up a box with a huge gun.

“Where’d you get that?” Luther says, stunned.

“In Dad’s room. It’s similar to the model I used at work.” he answers. Something about seeing a thirteen year old with a gun is concerning, but as he looks down the scope, I see a glimpse of the man left to wander the aftermath of the apocalypse.

Luther begins to protest Five’s plan to kill a gardener named Milton. Five argues that he’d be dead anyway, as he starts heading out the door.

“I call shotgun,” I say, jumping off the bed to follow him.

“You’re not going anywhere,” Luther says, holding Delores by the neck out the open window. Five aims his gun at him.

“Put her down,” he says, seething, and Luther drops her. Five teleports to catch her, and Luther runs over to grab his abandoned gun, but I get there first. I point it at Luther, daring him to come closer. 

“Come on, (Y/n), you don’t know how to use that,” Luther says carefully, holding a hand out.

“I can learn.” I answer. I try holding it like I saw Five earlier, but Luther rolls his eyes.

“I know you two are still good people. Five, if you weren’t you wouldn’t have come back. But I can’t let you two go around on a shooting spree to save the world. There has to be another way.”

“There’s still a way, but it’s nearly impossible,” Five says hesitantly.

“Key word, nearly” I say, throwing Luther the gun, and he freaks out trying to catch it.

“Can’t be more impossible than what got you here again.” Luther says, and Five takes a deep breath as he tells us his plan.

\-----------

“I don’t know why the kid gets to sit in the passenger seat. It’s probably illegal.” I groan, feeling my breakfast threatening to come back up.

“Because the kid is the one that’s going to save all our asses,” Five retorts, and I kick the back of his chair.

“Tell that to my stomach,” I answer, “and on the way can you stop going over every single bump in the road, Luther. It’s like you’re doing this on purpose.” He looks at me in the rearview mirror, and I swear he’s smirking.

After what feels like hours of driving in the countryside, we finally stop.

“You know, I never enjoyed it.” Five says.

“What?”

“The killing. I mean, I was...good at it, and took pride in my work. But it didn’t make me happy. It was probably being alone for so long. Solitude messes with your mind.” he says, looking out the window, forlorn. It makes sense. I mean, I was only gone for a couple of years but I managed to convince myself that everyone hated me. Being gone for decades, would probably be a whole other monster.

“Me neither, I only spent four years on the moon, but that was more than enough. It's being alone that breaks you.” Luther says, before glancing at the briefcase in Five’s lap. “Think they’ll buy it?”

“Well, I know that they’re desperate. It’s like when a cop loses his gun. If the Commission finds out, they’ll be in deep shit. Not to mention they’ll be stuck here until they manage to get it back.” Five replies, shifting the case. “What’s in here, anyways?”

“I hope you’re not planning on eating at home anytime soon, I literally threw a whole cabinet’s worth of plates and silverware in there,” I say, “You know, to make it feel heavy.”

“I should hold onto it...in case they try to make a move on you, Five,” Luther says, reaching out to grab the briefcase.

“I can’t let you do that, you’re the biggest target out of all of us. I’ll hold it. Even if they shoot me, I’ll come back, and if something happens to you, we lose time to escape.” I lug the briefcase over to the backseat. This is kinda heavy, but I can’t risk any differences in weight.

“Ok (Y/n) but be careful. I’ve lived a long life, but you’re still young. Your whole life is ahead of you two, so don’t waste it,” Five reminisces.

“Okay, dad,” I huff, opening the door at the sound of an approaching car. My palms start sweating, and I’m not sure if it’s the stress or the fact that it’s hot as hell.

“If this all goes sideways, do me a favor and tell Delores I’m sorry,” Five says as he approaches the car.

“You know, I feel a lot like I’m trading my kid off after a nasty divorce,” I laugh. The heat comes off the pavement in waves, making everything look hazy. Snippet’s of Five conversation drift over to Luther and I. Suddenly, Hazel and Chacha take off their masks, pulling a gun. Luther tenses, ready to head over, but I pull him back.

“Give him some time, he knows what he’s doing.” Chacha heads over to a payphone, and Five comes back.

“What happens now?” Luther asks, desperate for a solution.

“Now we wait.” Five answers, putting his hands into his pockets. Hopefully this is over soon, I think I can feel a heat stroke coming on, and Luther is in an overcoat. I’m surprised he hasn’t passed out.

“This isn’t good,” I whisper, hearing music. I must be hallucinating. But everyone turns to the right, where far in the road, a truck is careening toward us. “You guys can see it too?”

“Is that her?” Luther asks, incredulous. His question is answered as the ice cream truck comes closer.

“What is he doing here?” Five hisses, as Klaus waves from the passenger window, Diego stepping on the gas. Hazel and Chacha start shooting, and Five ducks behind the car as Luther jumps in front of us, grabbing the briefcase, trying to shield the bullets. As they begin aiming at Luther, I close my eyes in anticipation.

When I open them again, Five’s gone, and so are Hazel and Chacha’s guns. Luther throws the briefcase as far as he can, “Go get it!”. I run over to the ice cream truck, and throw open the door. 

“Come on! We have to go now!” I yell, dragging Klaus out, his arm on my back as Luther helps Diego. We haul ass back to the car, Klaus and Diego sliding into the back seat. I run over to the passenger seat, and as I swing it open I see writing on my hand. Be back soon. I guess his plan worked after all.

Luther steps on the accelerator, and we make our getaway, Klaus screaming out the window. I roll down the glass and laugh as the air hits my face.

It’s about time we got a win.


	9. The Day that Wasn't

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The rest of the Umbrella Academy learns about the apocalypse. A new revelation brings up a deeper conversation about the nature of the Academy.

Ever since we got back from the trade-off, my mind has been racing. We’re another day closer to the end of the world, and Five is gone. For now, I think, looking at my hand, the writing faded.

A knock at the door, startles me out of my thoughts. “Can I come in?” Diego says from outside. I open the door and go back to sit on my bed. He hesitates at the doorway, before sitting down next to me. “Can we...talk about yesterday?”

“Sure. But first, hear me out.” I say, moving back to look at him. “I understand how you felt, really I do, and I forgive you, because I can’t afford not to right now. The only thing I ask of you, is time. I need to wrap my head around everything, but I promise that once I’m ok, I’ll let you know.” I exhale, all of the words finally out in the air. He seems to think it over.

“Ok, agreed.” he nods, “I’ll be waiting. Don’t forget that.” With that, he stands up, stopping at the doorway before looking back. I give him a tentative smile, before he heads out, seemingly better than before. I feel bad giving him such a half-assed answer, but it’s all I can give right now. I need to wait for Five before making any major decisions.

I get up, shaking my head, and head to the bathroom. I could really use a splash of cold water to feel less tired. 

As I get close to the door, I can hear someone sniffling. “Klaus?” I ask, peeking through the doorway. He wipes his eyes, and looks up from his seat on the floor. 

“Oh, hey (Y/n).”

“Can I stay here for a bit? I promise I won’t bother you.”

“Oh. Sure, go ahead,” he moves over to make room to get in. I climb into the empty bathtub, looking up at the ceiling. There’s something soothing about being blocked on all sides by walls, and the cool porcelain feels nice on my warm skin. I feel...safe.

“Nice tattoo,” I say hesitantly. I hadn’t seen it before, and hopefully it would get his mind off whatever was worrying him.

He laughs dryly, “A little souvenir from the Vietnam War.” 

“Huh.” I mull his answer over for a second. “I'm guessing you opened the briefcase?”

“Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner,” his voice floats over the edge of the tub.

“How long?” 

“Almost a year” he whispers.

“That…. must’ve sucked.” What else was I supposed to say to him? He’s probably been through hell and back.

“It did in the end.” Klaus is quiet again, and I close my eyes. The three days of no sleep are finally getting to me. Klaus starts talking again, his voice soft like a lullaby. He tells me about Dave. I can tell how much he loved him. Klaus says his name like it’s something fragile, that needs to be protected. Someone he needs to keep safe. When he’s finished talking, I can hear him sniffling again.

“I’m so sorry, Klaus,” I say, “I would have loved to meet him.” Peeking over the lip of the tub, I look at him closely, his mind a million miles away.

“Yeah, well me too,” he says, snapping back to reality. He fumbles in his pockets, finally pulling out a small plastic bag. “Which is why, I need to get rid of these stupid things.” He struggles to open the bag, before finally throwing the pills into the toilet in frustration, his tears following them.

I climb out of my spot, and sit down next to him, hugging him as he clings to my arm. If I could just reach into his heart, and heal him, I would. After a couple of minutes, Luther comes into the bathroom.

“Oh, good. You’re both in here. Listen….we need to talk. All of us, downstairs.”

“Can it wait, we’re kinda in the middle of an emotional crisis,” I say, looking up at him.

“Oh, uh...can you, hurry it up a bit. The world’s ending in three days, and we need to come up with a plan.” At his words, Klaus finally acknowledges Luther. 

“Thanks, Luther, I was hoping if I ignored it, it would go away,” I answer, brushing off my pants as I get off the floor. I give Klaus my hand, as he looks at us like we’re crazy.

“What are you guys talking about?”

“Let’s go downstairs,” I answer him, “I don’t think this is something you’ll want to hear twice.”

\------

We follow Luther downstairs, and I grab Klaus’ arm as he walks down. He’s shaky from the withdrawal starting to kick in. When he’s finally sitting down on the sofa, I go to the kitchen and grab two glasses of water. As soon as I give one to Klaus, he drinks it quickly, setting the cup down on the floor beside him. Once everyone is finally here, Luther clears his throat.

“So, the world ends in three days.”

“Three days?” Allison clarifies.

“That’s what Five said,” Luther shrugs.

“The old bastard did mention the apocalypse, come to think of it. He just left out the part about how soon.” Klaus says sarcastically, his hands twitching.

“But how can we trust him….Five’s been a little...y’know,” Allison says, whistling.

“Our little psycho,” Klaus finishes endearingly.

“There’s nothing psychotic about this. The things he talked about...you can’t make something that intricate up. Not to mention the assholes that keep trying to kill him,” I say, taking a sip from my glass.

“That’s why they were after him?” Diego says, looking up. I hum in response, and Allison narrows her eyes.

“What the hell did Five even see?” she asks Luther. He turns to me, eyes pleading that I help him out.

“You did say you wanted to be the leader. So, lead away, Number One,” I say, waving my hand ceremoniously. He evades the question, talking instead about the importance of teamwork, but no one is buying it.

“Wait a tick, wait a tick...What happened the first time around?” Klaus says, seeing through Luther’s act.

Luther mumbles into his coffee, trying to go unnoticed.

“What was that?” Allison looks at him for an answer.

“We all died,” I say. Might as well rip the bandage off. Everyone looks up, eyes wide, and I continue drinking my water, nonchalant. Then the questions come from all sides.

“Is it just us?” Diego asks Luther, serious.

“It’s everyone.”

“In the Academy?” Klaus says, snapped back to reality.

“By everyone, we mean everyone. The whole world. All humankind. Gone.” I call out from my seat.

“Ok...but what gives us a win this time?” Klaus asks, not convinced we should even bother. Before I can answer him, Vanya walks in.

“What’s going on” she asks, confused.

Allison speaks first. “It’s a family matter.” Wrong choice of words. Hurt flashes across Vanya’s face.

“So you couldn’t bother to include me?”

“No, no it’s not like that,” Allison says, trying to fix the situation. “We were jus-”

“Of course it’s like that. Even (Y/n) is here, but I guess you’d rather have her for a sister, right? I mean, at least she has powers. By all means, don’t let me interrupt.” Vanya turns around, ready to storm off.

“I’ll fill you in later...when we’re alone,” Allison pleads.

“Don’t even bother, and I won’t either,” Vanya spits out, and they continue arguing, before she’s finally had enough.

“You know, I’ve been left out of everything my entire life. And here I was thinking it was Dad, but he’s dead. So really, you’re all the real assholes.” She turns around and storms out of the Academy, her friend close behind. Allison follows after her but Luther stops her, saying we don’t have time right now to go after her. But he’s wrong. It’s because we don’t have time that we need her here.

“She’s right,” I say, getting up, “If we’re going to fight this, we all need to be together. All of us. I’m going to go talk to her.” I grab my coat and head out after her, ignoring everyone’s protests.

I can hear Vanya’s voice from around the corner. “I can’t believe I was stupid enough to go back there.” I jog to catch up to her as she talks to the guy, when I hear creaking from above me. I watch incredulously as all the lampposts lean into her, pulled by some unknown force.

“I just wanted them to be proud of me. And how could I presume I’d ever be worthy of their time or attention.” As she continues rambling, each pole she passes is pulled towards her. I hide behind a wall, sinking as I think back to when we were kids. She always stayed at home because she had nothing to protect her. But Hargreeves was wrong.

Vanya has powers.

\--------

When I make it back to the house, everyone is gone. I hear Luther throwing things in another room, and head over.

“Luther, I need to tell you someth-”

“I don’t care,” he says, his rage filling the room.

“But, it’s impor-”

“Get out!” Luther roars, and he throws some sort of package at the wall near my head. I jump back, the noise startling, when I bend down to see what the bag is. It’s from his mission to the moon. But it’s not open. None of them are. He kneels in a mountain of them, his world crumbling. I head out of the room. Luther needs time to reevaluate his life right now.

I run upstairs, where Allison is filling her suitcase. “Allison, about Vanya, she-”

“Not now, (Y/n). If the world is ending, I need to be with Claire. Vanya made her decision, and I’m making mine.” I keep trying to tell her, but she isn’t listening, and closes the door after pushing me out. Muffled voices from another room catch my attention. Klaus. And Diego? I run up to the doorway.

Klaus is screaming, and Diego is tying him to a chair. “What’s going on?” 

“(Y/N)!” Klaus yells, squirming in the chair, “You’re here! Help me, Diego won’t let me go!”

“He wants to see some guy from Vietnam, but he can’t do that if he doesn’t sober up,” Diego tells Klaus as he struggles to tie him down.

“Dave? Here, let me help.” I push Klaus into the chair while Diego wraps the rope around him. Klaus pleads with him, saying he’ll conjure up Patch, but Diego ignores him. Klaus turns to me instead.

“(Y/n)! Please, I can talk to your mom! I’ll do anything!” he cries. It’s so tempting, but at this rate, I’ll probably see her soon in a couple of days.

Once Diego is done, I move towards the doorway, not wanting to be close to Klaus in case he becomes desperate enough to do something drastic. Diego gives him a bucket, and we both walk out, Klaus’ pleas following us out the door, when I remember why I’d even come up here in the first place.

“Diego I need to tell you something and no one else is listening and Klaus has other things on his mind and I think this can help us stop the apoca-”

“Hold on, slow down, I can’t understand you,” he says, grabbing my shoulders, “Deep breaths. That’s it. What’s wrong?”

“Vanya has powers. I don’t exactly know what they are, but when she was leaving, all the lamps started leaning towards her. If she has powers, that means she can help us...right?” I look up to him. His expression is a mixture of surprise and confusion.

“There’s no way...I mean, we would have known. We all grew up tog-”

“Yes, I know, I know, but I’m thinking that something may have happened and Reginald made her hide them or something. I’m going to see if I can find anything in his study...I would ask Pogo but he was his confidante, and something tells me he’s in on it.”

“Ok, let’s go then,” Diego says, and we quickly head downstairs, but a familiar noise from the living room stops us in our tracks. I walk into the doorway slowly, unable to believe it.

It’s Grace. 

But she was dead. Did Pogo fix her? Diego walks up to Grace, his face dark.

“Mom? How are you….walking around,” he says, grabbing her wrist, sewn up from the previous damages.

She laughs lightly. “One foot in front of the other...why, how do you do it?” She’s back, but she seems...different. More...aware.

“What’s the last thing you remember?” Diego asks. She can’t seem to remember anything sooner than a week ago. Before she finishes, I watch as she looks over my shoulder, her expression freezing. I grab a coin from my pocket and drop it, not wanting to give her away. As I bend to pick it up, I look behind me. Pogo is walking away, turning into the hallway. So, he did have something to do with this.

When Grace suggests leaving the grounds, I quickly take her up on the offer, seeing the silent plea in her eyes.

“That sounds great, we could all use some fresh air right now. Right, Diego?” I push his arm lightly, and Grace squeezes his hand. He gets the message, and agrees. They continue talking, when I remember something else I need to take care of.

“Give me one second, I just need to grab a jacket before we head out.” I smile and head up to Vanya’s room. She’s been taking medication for her anxiety, but I’m starting to think there were other reasons for it that Grace might know. 

Come on, where are they? I go through Vanya’s drawers quickly, looking for an empty bottle she may have left behind, cringing at the invasion of her privacy, and coming up empty.

I duck, checking under her bed, but it’s also bare. I turn around, feeling under her wardrobe, when I feel a cylindrical bottle. Yes! After fumbling around for a couple of minutes, I finally get the bottle out. I don’t recognize the name, and I put it in my pocket, ready to head out.

\-------

“We should have said something about Dad keeping you locked up. It wasn’t right,” Diego says as he leads Grace. He continues talking as we walk further.

“There’s something else I need to say,” Grace says, cutting him off. “Pogo and I...we’ve been lying. To all of you.”

“It’s about Vanya, right?” I say, my hand reaching to grab the bottle. 

But then the day reset.

\------

“Everyone means everyone. The whole world. All of ...human..kind?” I suddenly feel nauseous, and turn back for my glass. 

“Ok, but what gives us a win this ti-”

Electricity crackles in the room, and Five falls on the table, as everyone screams.

I cough out my water, the noise making me choke.

“And here I was, thinking you’d forgotten about us." I say, turning to look at Five.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late update, I had to catch up on some classes. I'll try to be better next time. Thank you as always.


	10. The Day that Was

Protect Harold Jenkins.

I repeat the phrase a couple of times, as everyone else reads the slip of paper. “Who’s Harold Jenkins?” Allison asks, looking up at Five.

“I don’t know...yet. All I know is he’s connected the apocalypse in some way.” Five says, pacing. Diego brings up the valid point that it’s going to be difficult to find him in a world full of people with the same name.

Vanya comes in and is hurt that she wasn’t invited to this conversation, and she storms off, her friend following her. Five turns back to the matter at hand and tells everyone else about the Commission, and that he intercepted this message meant for Hazel and Chacha. Since they’re trying to keep the apocalypse on track, it’s clear that Harold Jenkins is important to it taking place.

“Do you realize how insane this all sounds?” Allison says, unconvinced. Five explodes, stressed out of his mind.

“Everything about us is insane. It always has been!” Five starts going into a rage as he talks about everyone’s lives, but something is off. I can’t quite put my finger on it, and having to think of protecting the world kind of takes precedence over everything else right now, so it’s hard to concentrate.

“Why is this time any different?” Allison interjects. 

“Because this time, I’m here. And we have the name of the person responsible.” Five says, as he reiterates his plan to save everyone, and how he’d like to live long enough to meet Claire. 

Everyone gets up, ready to jump into action, but Luther stays still.

“I’m going to look through Dad’s files. I think...he sent me to the moon for a reason,” he states confidently. I don’t think this has anything to do with the moon, but at this point, I don’t think he’ll take no for an answer.

Diego calls out for Klaus to accompany him, but he declines, stating that he feels under the weather. “I’ll go with you guys,” I say, grabbing my jacket, and following everyone out. I make my way to the passenger side of the door, grabbing the handle, when Five zaps into the seat.

“Really, Five? I don’t want to get carsick again.”

“Do I need to remind you the world ends in three days?” he answers, not budging. Grumbling, I make my way to the back seat next to Allison, focusing on not puking as the car starts moving.

“Are you ok?” Allison says, looking over.

“I will be, once we stop moving.” I mutter, closing my eyes.

\------

“So what’s the plan?” Allison asks as we pull up to the police station. Diego explains that he’s going to look for Harold’s record, and that he called ahead to make sure he’d be able to get it.

“That’s what a leader does. He leads.” Diego says, and he gets out of the car. Allison gets out of the car, and Five and I follow her to a payphone, where she leaves a message for Vanya. As I lean against the building, waiting for her to finish, out of the corner of my eye I see Five clutching his side. That’s when I realize that he has a gunshot wound. 

“Oh shit, I should have been paying more attention. Let me h-”

“Don’t!” he says, moving back, “We need you to be available in case of an emergency. I’ll be fine.”

“But-”

“Trust me.”

I sigh and look back at Allison. I guess he’s right, in case if this Harold guy tries something, I need to be able to jump into action. Diego comes back with the file, and when he opens it, Allison immediately recognizes the picture.

“That’s Leonard Peabody,” she gasps, and I look closer at the picture. It’s the same guy that Vanya was with earlier at the house. What could he have to do with this?

“What are we waiting for? Let's get this guy.” Diego says, answers, and we head out again.

\-------

When we get to Leonard’s house, my first thought is how normal it is. You’d never think that the person responsible for the end of the world is living in a two story house in a quiet neighborhood, but here we are.

“Be careful, ok? We don’t know what he’s capable of.” Diego affirms as we walk up.

“I mean he looked pretty scrawny when I first saw him.” Allison replies, unconvinced.

“Yeah, but so are mass murderers, I mean, look at Five.”

“Thanks,” he answers sarcastically. Allison walks to the back of the house and Five disappears inside. As Diego and I walk up to the house, I reach for the door handle.

“Why don’t we try the...”, but before I can finish, Diego runs into the glass, and crashes into the living room, “...door.” Sure enough, the door’s unlocked, and I step in carefully, my shoes crunching on the glass.

“I guess bad guys don’t need home security these days,” I say, giving Diego a hand, as he gets to his feet.

“Subtle,” Allison muses. No one else is home, so I head upstairs to investigate, and I hear Allison climb up with me. None of the rooms have anything suspicious, and I walk out to find Allison standing under a trap door.

“This is starting to feel like a horror movie, don’t be surprised if we find a dead body up here,” I tease, as she pulls down the ladder.

“Tell me about it,” she says, and we climb up, the dust from the attic making me sneeze. When I make it up, Allison is frozen. 

“What’s wro….oh this is much worse than a dead body.” The walls are lined with pictures of the Academy, their eyes crossed out, and figures melted. “And he hasn’t tried to kill anyone before this week? Major props to him I guess.” But I run out of jokes when I find that he even has a picture of me. It’s recent, and my face is burned out.

Maybe it was the fact that I was moved into the Academy as unceremoniously as a piece of furniture, or that Hargreeves treated me like a walking hospital, but they were never my family. I had a family, it didn’t matter that she was dead. 

Sure, I spent time with everyone when we weren’t on missions, and in general training, but most of the time, I was separated to train and become a more efficient healer. All to protect my friends. Working with them meant sneaking into the scene later, and hiding where no one could see me, while everyone else jumped into action. Being unknown meant that I could work without the bad guys trying to knock me out, and this way if I had to take on a particularly messy injury, I could sneak back out while I was still vulnerable. 

For this reason, I was never introduced to the public eye. Hargreeves refused to give up all his aces, and I continued to fight in secret. People still talked, and speculated on how the Academy always pulled through unscathed. Despite the rumors about my existence, no one knew my face or name. That was, until Vanya wrote her book. 

Which is why seeing my picture is so unsettling, since I never had any public ties to the Academy until that book. Allison joins me as I look at all the pictures up close, and eventually calls Diego and Five up.

“This was never about Vanya. This was about us.” she says, as they take everything in. Suddenly, Five exhales and drops to the floor.

“Shit, I told you to let me help,” I groan, and bend down next to him, the blood soaking through his vest. I put my hand over his stomach to heal him faster, but he grabs my wrist.

“Don’t. You guys need to keep going and stop him.” he hisses, as he starts passing out. Allison rushes over and moves his head, trying to wake him up. 

“I know he said not to, but” I reach out, clenching my teeth as I work on stopping the bleeding, trying not to double over from the pain. “That should be enough to get him back to the Academy.” We rush his limp body out the door, and into the car.

\------

Tap. Tap. Tap.

My shoes beat an incessant rhythm into the carpet, and I hold my head in my hands, following the patterns on the floor from my seat in the hall.

I shouldn’t have listened to Five. He’s the one that should be out there, going to find Leonard, Harold, whatever his name is. He’d be of more use to everyone right now. I should be the one in that bed.

I look up, realizing that Allison and Diego are talking in the doorway, and I walk over to where they are. “We don’t have enough time. We gotta go,” Diego says, turning away.

“I don’t know, Diego,” Allison answers, “He’s unconscious, and we need him.”

“I can help him,” I affirm, “You’re right. He knows what to do. I’ll stay here instead.” Allison turns around, realizing I’m here. I look at Allison’s eyes, daring her to tell me I’m wrong. Her expression tells me that she’s in agreement, but before she can speak, Diego cuts her off.

“No, we can do this ourselves. He’ll be fine,” he says, holding me back from walking into the room, where Grace is tending to Five. 

“We tried that already, remember. I don’t want to be the reason we all get killed, again. If being confined for a couple of hours means having a chance to stay alive, I’ll gladly take it.” I say, shaking him off, but Allison blocks me from the room.

“You don’t need to do that, (y/n),” she says, “Five’s smart, and if he wanted you to stay with us, there’s probably a reason.” I don’t feel comfortable with leaving Five to heal himself when I can do it quickly, but decide to listen to her, nodding in response. Diego turns to leave, but Allison stays planted. “I just...I want to go see Claire, in case if this all blows up in our faces,” she says, desperation seeping into her voice.

“You can’t run away from this.” Diego tells her, “That’s what started this whole situation in the first place.” He stays silent, choosing his next words carefully. “Luther was right.”

Allison and I turn to look at him, surprised. “I didn’t think I would ever hear you say those words,” Allison says, eyebrows raised, and I knock on the wall quickly.

“Just in case. Maybe the apocalypse already started.” I joke, trying to get through the heavy atmosphere.

“Yeah, well, he’s right. We need to stick together right now,” he repeats.

“So what now?” Allison says, crossing her arms.

“Well, Jenkins’ grandmother has a house. Near Jackpine Road,” Diego answers, looking at the file again.

“You think he took her there?” Allison asks.

“Let’s hope so,” I say, grabbing my jacket from the chair, “We’re kind of cutting it close here.” We head out of the house, and I close the door behind me as I follow them onto the sidewalk. Allison reads the file, and I look over her shoulder at Leonard’s picture again. At least we have a lead this time.

“Nope, let’s go this way,” Diego says, leading both of you to the left.

“Wait, but the car’s in that direction.” Allison answers, confused. I look back cautiously. Cops. My heart pounds, the blood drumming in my ears. This isn’t good. Does this have to do with the detective’s death? We didn’t kill her, but our DNA is probably all over the scene.

“Uh...Diego?” I ask, trying to get his attention.

“Just trust me, ok?” he asserts, as his pace quickens. I walk behind Allison, my chest tightening as the cars approach. We’re so close to getting answers, we just need to get away from the police, apparently.

“What’s going on?” Allison asks, turning around.

“They think I did something,” Diego says, facing forward.

“What do they think you did?” she presses, concerned.

“Murder.” Diego answers curtly.

“Did you?”

“Really, Allison?” I ask her, and she turns around, defensive.

“He carries knives everywhere, what else am I supposed to think?” she answers. I open my mouth to fight back, when Diego speaks up.

“We’re going to need to split up.” I stop in my tracks, grabbing his arm.

“No. What did you say earlier, we need to stay together,” I plead with him, “I can’t let you take the fall for this. I was there, too. I’ll tell them what happened. Please, just let me help you.”

“You need to go,” he answers, “The only reason you aren’t a suspect is because your fingerprints aren’t in the system. If you stay, they’ll get you, too. Allison needs you. The world needs you. I need you.” I look up at him, his eyes pleading with me to cooperate. I nod, grabbing his hand.

“Okay, but you need to stay safe, or I swear I will never forgive you.” I whisper, and he squeezes my hand. 

“You too. You’re getting into the habit of getting in trouble these days.” he teases. Allison interrupts, saying it’s time to go. I start following her, before running back and hugging Diego tightly, breathing him in. He wraps his arms around me, trying to stay brave. Allison grabs my arm, and as difficult as it is, I step back, refusing to look at Diego’s face, or else what little resolve I have left will break.

As we get into the car, the windows light up in red and blue as the squad cars surround him. Allison puts the keys in ignition and steps on the gas. My stomach feels like I’ve swallowed a bag of rocks, and I look out the window. 

My eyes glaze over, and rain patters on the window pane. If I close my eyes tightly enough, the street lights become stars, and we’re moving through space instead of toward an apocalypse.


	11. I Heard a Rumor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On a mission to find Vanya, things take a dark turn.

“Hey..Allison?” I say, as the car careens down the wet highway. The speedometer inches it’s way further and further as she pushes the pedal intensely, her knuckles white on the wheel. “Allison!” I yell, my nails digging into the car upholstery.

“What?” she shouts, looking over at me impatiently.

“Sorry, it’s just…you were going too fast, and it’s raining. It’s dangerous.”

“Oh...I didn’t realize,” she answers distractedly, “I was just...thinking.”

“Thinking,” I echo. She seems tense, like a coil at its limit. I open the glove box, pulling out a map, the roads faded along its folds. “So...do you know where we’re headed?”

She gives a short laugh, “I’d hope so, we’ve been driving for a while.” I close the map, not sure how to continue the conversation. 

“I hope Vanya’s ok.”

“Me too, who knows what Leonard is capable of,” she answers, eyes on the road.

“Murder, apparently,” I murmur, flipping through his file, “But we’ll get there before anything like that happens.” I close the file, putting it between us. It’s late and my eyelids feel heavy, so I turn on the radio, hoping the noise will be enough to keep me from falling asleep.

It isn’t.

\-------

The sun burns the back of my eyes, and I realize the car isn’t moving anymore. I look over to the driver’s side, but Allison isn’t in the car. I open the door, stretching my legs out as my shoes crunch on dry leaves. As I walk around the house, I spot Allison looking into the window.

“No one’s home.”

“Jesus,” she breathes, clutching her chest, “I thought you were still asleep.”

“Sorry, I saw you weren’t in the car and came to find you,” I apologize, as she catches her breath, “But yeah, I don’t sense anyone inside.”

“She’s been here. Look, it’s Vanya’s violin case.” she says, pointing through the window pane. I lean in, cupping my hands around my eyes to see clearly. She heads back to the car, and I follow her, as she turns on the engine.

“Where are we going?” 

“I don’t know yet, but we need to find Vanya,” Allison says. I close the door and we head out of the woods. We drive down the main road when traffic stops, a line of cars trying to get past more police cars.

“What the hell happened here?” I ask, leaning forward in the seat to see why the yellow tape is up. From my seat, I see a familiar piece of clothing hanging from a hook. “Is that?”

“Vanya’s scarf,” Allison answers, and she gets out of the car, tugging it down. I open the door and head over, taking the scarf as she goes to talk to the sheriff.

From here, I can hear them talking about how this area is an active crime scene. When Allison takes off her glasses, the sheriff freaks out. Clearly, he’s a fan. She’s always just been Allison to me, so sometimes I forget she’s an actress.

“Well, um I have to go. Work stuff, you know,” he says, ducking under the yellow tape, but Allison stops him.

“Actually, that’s...why I’m here. I’m...researching a role. About law enforcement.” she explains. He looks at her disbelievingly.

“Here? In Jackpine Cove? We haven’t had any large scale crime here in years.” he states skeptically.

“Oh, um, well, it’s about a small town cop...who...takes down a drug cartel.” You know, she may be great at acting, but I guess improv isn’t her thing. I sling Vanya’s scarf around my throat, and pull out my dead cell phone, holding it to my ear.

“Excuse me, Ms. Hargreeves, it’s Mark from Production,” I say, stepping in between Allison and the sheriff, “He wants to know if you’re still looking for an expert to help you with your role?” I turn to the sheriff, feigning surprise. 

“Oh, good morning, sorry for the interruption, I’m (y/n), Ms. Hargreeves’ assistant. Would you be willing to help us out with this? I’m sure my client would greatly appreciate the favor,” I say, giving him a winning smile.

Allison turns to look at him, a silent plea in her eyes. He looks back at me, stammering, “W-well, I could let you tag along, if that helps?”

I smile brightly, “That’s perfect, thank you so much, Mr…?”

“Cheddar”

“Cheddar,” I repeat, shaking his hand. I walk away, pretending to keep talking on the phone as Allison and I get back into the car. “How was that?” I ask, turning to Allison as Cheddar is out of earshot.

“And the Oscar for Best Actress goes to…” she announces, and we laugh, as we tail the officer’s car.

\--------

I scribble some notes on a piece of paper for the fake movie, as Allison and Cheddar interrogate the guy in the hospital bed. Luntz, I think he said his name was.

“It was not an accident,” he says, as Cheddar asks him about the night before. “This guy...he hired us to start a fight. To mess with him, in front of his girlfriend. He paid us a lot, too.” Luntz describes the events, how he and his friends got drunk, and started to bother both of them.

“The guy who paid you, do you remember what he looked like?” Allison asks, and she describes Leonard, as Luntz affirms that that sounds like him. She pulls out a picture of Vanya, asking if she was with him, when Cheddar pulls her aside.

“What exactly are you two playing at here,” he whispers, annoyed, “Are you even her assistant?” He turns around to me, and I freeze.

“You could say...that I represent Allison?” I answer sheepishly.

“I’m sorry for misleading you,” Allison admits.

“You mean lying.”

“Yes, but I needed answers. My sister, the girlfriend, she’s in trouble, and I need your help to find her,” Allison states, showing him the picture of Vanya. He sighs, resigned, and continues questioning Luntz, when a nurse walks in. He needs to take some more tests, and we’re led out of the room.

“I can make this move a lot quicker if you want me to,” I whisper to Allison, as we walk into the hallway.

“No, I can’t afford to have you incapacitated out here right now. We can wait.” I pace the hallway, as Allison makes small talk to Cheddar.

After what feels like hours, the nurse finally comes back out. 

“Have you seen Mr. Luntz? He went missing when we were going to take him to another test,” she asks, but we haven’t. Allison shows her the picture, and the nurse recognizes Vanya, saying she saw her here earlier today.

“She must have been here while we were at the cabin,” I murmur, “We need to go back there.” Allison agrees, and we start leaving, but Cheddar stops us.

“You two stay here. That guy is dangerous, the Department will take care of it.” he says, and he walks away, probably to look for Luntz. That’s our cue to leave, and we rush out of the hospital.

“I don’t think he’s hurt her.” I tell Allison, “but he’s definitely planning something.”

“Let’s just get there, and get Vanya out. Hopefully things don’t escalate,” she answers, and we drive into the night.

\----

When we make it back to the woods, it’s dark out, the only light coming from the car’s beams on the ground. 

The sound of a violin echoes through the trees, the lilting melody filling the car. “Is the radio still on?” I ask, confused. I must have been distracted and not noticed.

“No...it must be Vanya,” Allison answers, looking at the dashboard.

“But we’re still a little ways from the cabin, isn’t it too loud for that?” She shrugs as I roll down the window, the sound getting louder.

When we pull into the driveway, the lights are on, a beacon in the middle of the dark, and the lights outside on the porch are swaying. I slam the car door, the wind rustling the leaves on the trees, as I follow Allison up the stairs.

“Vanya?” she calls out, and we go inside, where she’s playing. “There you are. What happened?” Vanya stops playing and the wind stops. That’s weird.

“What are you two doing here?” Vanya asks, her brows furrowed.

“We were worried about you. Are you okay?” Allison asks, looking around.

“I’m fine.” Vanya mutters.

“That wind, and the lights. Was that...you?” I ask, waving at the swinging fixtures.

“Yeah. I...I made those things happen. With my powers,” she says, a newfound confidence lacing her voice. “It’s kind of weird, isn’t it?”

“It’s...incredible,” Allison replies, eyes wide.

“Extraordinary,” I affirm. Allison inhales, looking cautious, and Vanya notices her hesitation.

“...But?”

“Vanya, we need to go,” she says, moving towards her, “We can talk about this in the car.”

“Why?” Allison tells her about Leonard’s lies, and his past. As she talks about his criminal record, and his conviction, Vanya shakes her head, refusing to hear.

“You’re wrong. That’s insane, his dad is an engineer.”

“I have the report in the car,” Allison refutes, “I’ll show you.” Vanya tenses up, her agitation clear on her face. This is probably overwhelming her, and Allison’s attitude is a little...confrontational.

“Uh, Allison, I think you should slow down a bit,” I warn her, at this rate, things aren’t going to go well.

“I know it doesn’t make sense, but we went to his house, and he had pictures of us, with our eyes gouged out,” she explains, trying to get through to Vanya.

“You’re right, it doesn’t make sense,” she echoes, and drops onto the couch, wrapping her head around all this new information. I go over and sit across from her.

“I understand this is a lot to take in. But we just want to help you. Please.” I beg her, reaching for her hands, but she snatches them away. Allison kneels next to her.

“Vanya, please. I love you. You’re my sister, and I want to be here for you. We want to be here for you,” she pleads.

“I just...everything, and this power, I just...I just don’t understand,” she exclaims, breaking down into her hands. Her sobs fill the room and her body shakes in desperation. I take her scarf from my neck, and wrap it around her shoulders. Hopefully something familiar will be comforting to her right now. I slowly squeeze her arm, trying to offer some reassurance.

“Please, Vanya. Come with us, and we’ll all work through this together, ok? I promise you,” I tell her, trying to meet her eyes. The wind picks up again, her emotions manifesting with her newfound power.

“Of course,” Allison says, standing up, “I understand now.” Vanya looks up at her with narrowed eyes.

“When we were four, years before you came to the Academy, (Y/n), Dad told the rest of us that Vanya was sick, and needed to be separated,” she recounts, “...But he made me do something I never understood. He made me rumor Vanya into thinking she was ordinary.” Everything stops moving, as the words sink in. Suddenly, Vanya gets up, distraught.

“You did this to me?” she whispers, her voice shaking, “You knew that I had powers?” She heads out of the living room, and Allison calls after her.

“No! I-I didn’t understand! Not until just now,” she explains, trying to stop Vanya, who turns around, livid.

“No wonder you couldn’t bear to have me around the house,” she spits out, “You saw me as...as a threat to your...your dominance in the house!”

“That’s not true, Vanya!” Allison argues.

“You couldn’t handle the fact that Dad found me special, could you?”

“You don’t need powers to be special, Vanya, you always have been,” Allison counters.

“Don’t...you don’t get to say that,” Vanya says through her teeth.

“We can start over now, can’t you see that?”

“You destroyed my life!” Vanya shouts. I don’t know what to do, this is something between them, but they’re both going to end up hurting each other. We need to get out before Leonard comes back.

“Everything’s out in the open now, we can move on!” Allison says, her arms reaching out to Vanya as she stresses her point.

“I’m moving on, all right, with Leonard. I don’t need you or anyone else in the Academy.”

“With Harold” Allison corrects her. I get up slowly, I don’t want to set either of them off right now.

“Vanya,” I say slowly, “I understand that you’re angry, but right now, we need to get out of here.”

“No. You don’t understand,” she says quietly, “I have lived...my whole life in all of your shadows. Do you have any idea, how difficult that was? You were all the standard, and I was disposable. A liability. And all because what? Because Allison couldn’t bear that someone was more powerful than her.” She turns around to look at Allison, the wind picking up speed as it throws around the items in the house.

“You’re right, Vanya,” I say, trying to get her attention, “I can’t understand that. But I can understand that you’re hurt, and that you went through something no kid ever should. But Leonard? He’s only using you, he’s not who you think he is.”

“Leonard is the only person that ever loved me, even when I didn’t have powers. Just me,” she says, seething. “And even now, Allison is only trying to turn me back into who I was. Helpless, defenseless, Vanya. Or am I wrong?” She stands tall, her eyes cold.

“Look me in the eyes, Allison. Tell me you don’t feel threatened,” Vanya says cooly. Allison hesitates, and I can’t blame her. It feels like a bomb is about to go off, but it’s only because Vanya’s being manipulated into this narrative by somebody else.

“Please, I don’t want to argue with you,” she pleads.

“Then leave!” Vanya shouts, her voice shaking the walls.

“I just want to help you.”

“What part do you not understand? I. Don’t. Want. Your. Help.” she reiterates. This isn’t helping, she’s only becoming more frustrated, and her anger is getting out of control. We need to help her calm down, not agitate her, and defuse this situation.

“Allison…” I say, trying to get her to notice how dangerous this is for Vanya right now, but she keeps pushing forward.

“Get out of here!” Vanya screams again, her powers echoing like waves in my head, the throbbing making it hard to concentrate.

“Allison, please, we can’t get through to her like this,” I plead with her. Allison nods her head, standing her ground.

“You’re right,” she agrees, “I’m sorry, Vanya, but you leave me no choice.” No, she can’t use her power right now.

“Don’t d-”

“I heard a ru-”

Vanya yells, and Allison drops to the floor, the blood from her neck soaking her clothes.

“ALLISON!” My screams scrape my throat raw, as I run over to her, putting my hands on her throat to stop the blood

“No, no, no. I didn’t, I didn’t mean to,” Vanya says, kneeling next to us.

“I know,” I say quickly, “But you need to listen to me. I’m going to heal her, but it’s going to be bad, so I need you to make sure to get help. I don’t know how much blood she’s lost, and I don’t know if I’ll make it. Can you do that for me?” 

She nods vehemently, and I close my eyes, focusing on getting the wound closed. Just as she’s done healing, I collapse, my breath cut off, the iron taste of blood filling my mouth. It’s hard to breathe, and the pain is blinding. I try calling for Vanya, but my throat is thick with liquid, and I clutch my neck. I don’t want to die.

My eyelids are dragged closed, as my body shuts down. The last thing I see is Vanya’s teary face through my cloudy vision, as she fumbles to grab something.

Then everything goes black.


	12. Changes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a close brush with death, one person's decision starts a unfortunate turn of events.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

For the love of God, please turn the alarm off. As the sound continues, I force my eyes open, the weight of my eyelids making it no small feat. Surprisingly, the ceiling looks familiar. I’m in the house? I lift my hands in front of my eyes cautiously, and they move slowly, as if I’m underwater. Everything seems fine. But what was I doing before this? The beeping persists, and I look over to where it's coming from. Allison!

I launch myself off the metal gurney, dragging the iv bag with me, and the stand clatters to the floor, the needle pulled out of my arm. Grace appears and picks it up. I shakily try to get up off the floor. Idiot, you’ve literally been lying down and suddenly get up? What else did you expect?

Grace comes over and gives me a hand. “Are you alright (Y/n)?” she asks, worried, “You lost quite a bit of blood, but luckily someone stopped it from getting worse.” Grace points to a scarf, hanging off the edge of the bed. “I tried washing off the blood, but the stain just wouldn’t come out.”

“Vanya…” I whisper. So that’s why she was fumbling around in the cabin earlier. I owe her my life, I wasn’t sure if I could heal myself in time. The heart monitor gets my attention, and I look up, realizing that Allison is awake. I run over to her, and hug her tightly. “I’m so glad you’re okay,” I rasp, I guess my voice isn’t completely back yet. My hand instinctively reaches for my neck, which is bandaged with gauze. A precaution.

Allison flips through a notepad, writing quickly. Thank you.

“Wait, what’s wrong? Why aren’t you speaking?” Did I not heal her correctly? A quick mental scan says everything should be fine. I turn to Grace, desperate for an answer.

“She’s incredibly lucky you were there to heal her. She lost some blood, and you fixed the damages to her vocal chords, but she can’t speak,” she explains, “You did amazing, (Y/n), but the shock from the injury left her traumatized.” My eyes sting, and my throat tightens.

“I’m so sorry, Allison,” I say, defeated, “I should have done more to stop this from happening.” My hand clenches into a fist, as I struggle to find words to apologize for my own inadequacy. But Allison grabs it, pointing to a new addition in her book. Not your fault. I may not have been able to stop this, but I can stop it from getting worse.

“We need to find Vanya,” I affirm, and Allison nods, as she gets up off the bed. “You need to rest,” I try saying, but she shakes her head quickly. So do you. This is important. She raises her eyebrows, challenging me. “Ok, you win,” I answer, turning around to grab my jacket. I nearly jump back as I realize that someone else is here. 

Diego is slumped in a chair, knocked out. “He didn’t want to leave you, but he’s pretty sensitive to needles, and kept passing out. We brought him a chair, and he’s been there ever since,” Grace says, walking up behind me. I kneel down to his level, and kiss his forehead lightly. 

“Thank you for protecting me,” I whisper, and drape my jacket over his body. It’s better to let him rest for now, he’s probably exhausted. I walk to Allison, who’s hovering in the doorway. Cute. She nods over to us, and I roll my eyes. “Come on, I’ll drive,” I say, taking the car keys, but she takes them from my hand. I have more blood in my system, I’ll drive. 

\-------

After a quick stop for some supplies at the store, we reach Vanya’s apartment. Allison knocks on the door, but it’s no use. “She’s not here,” I tell her, “Can I borrow your notepad for a second?” I write out a note for Vanya, asking her to call us as soon as she can, and slide it under her door. It's better than nothing.

When we arrive at the house, it's surprisingly quiet. “Where is everyone?” I ask Allison, and she shrugs. I go back to see if anyone is in the room from before, but it’s empty. Allison runs into the room, pulling on my arm. Vanya she scribbles furiously on the notepad, and she walks away quickly, signaling for me to follow.

We walk into a dark corridor I’ve never seen before. Voices echo down the hall, and as we get near, I realize that everyone is standing in front of a heavy door, arguing.

“What’s going on?” I call out, walking into the room. I barely make it two feet before my breath is cut off as Diego wraps his arms tightly around me, and I bury my face into his neck, his heartbeat pounding against my temple.

“You promised you’d stay safe.”

“I know, but Allison was hurt, I couldn’t lea-” I’m cut off by his mouth as he kisses me gently. I melt into him, and it’s like the world falls away. I’m not sure how long it’s been when Klaus pushes his way in between us. 

“We get it, you missed her,” he teases, “but seriously, I’m glad you’re okay, (Y/n), you had us a little worried back there.” Klaus puts his hand on my shoulders, and for the first time, I look over at the door, where Vanya is pounding at the glass.

“Guys, why is Vanya locked in there?”

“She hurt Allison. And you. She’s dangerous,” Luther answers, arms crossed as he stands protectively in front of the door. Allison moved forward, shoving her notepad in his face. My fault.

“She didn’t mean for that to happen, she’s scared,” I argue, walking over to the door, but Luther pushes me back.

“She’s a threat to us.”

“A threat? She’s traumatized! And you think that throwing her back into the place that caused that trauma is going to help her?” I ask him, furious, as Vanya begs to be let out.

“I’m sorry, but she’s staying put.” Luther repeats, “Just until we know how dangerous she is.” The last thing Vanya needs is to be contained. She needs help figuring out what’s going on. I look around the room at Klaus, who shrugs. I turn to Diego, who’s been silent.

“Do you have any idea how bad it looked? There was so much blood, we couldn’t tell who it belonged to,” he explains carefully, “I thought you were dead. Luther’s right, she doesn’t know how to control this.”

“But we can help her. If she was as dangerous as he says, she would have left me to bleed out. But she didn’t. You saw the scarf, Vanya stopped the bleeding until you guys arrived. She helped me, and now she needs help,” I plead with him, but the look on Diego’s face tells me he’s made up his mind. I take a deep breath, pretending to give up, and turn to Luther.

“Fine...you’re right,” I say, “She’s safer in there.” I start heading out of the room, following everyone else, Luther behind me. Right as I reach the doorway, I turn around and punch Luther in the gut. I just need to weaken him long enough to get the door open. 

Adrenaline courses through my veins as he doubles over, his reaction too slow. I run over to the door, turning the handle, and letting Vanya out. She throws herself into my open arms, and I rub circles into her back lightly as she sobs. “You’re okay now, we’re going to help you,” I whisper reassuringly. A shadow on the door grows as I turn around just in time to see Luther about to bring his arms down to knock me out. I suck in my breath, and Vanya looks up, a surge of energy escaping her body as she knocks him back into the wall. 

“Vanya…?” I look at her, but she’s gone, her eyes white as the room shakes. The light goes out, and I look up, only to watch as the ceiling caves in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter to go, and midterms are also wrapping up, as always, thank you for reading. :)


	13. The White Violin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the apocalypse looms over the Academy, sacrifices must be made to hold the world together.

I’m trapped beneath a pile of rubble, conveniently formed in a tent over my head. I brush the dust out of my eyes as I try pushing the smaller pieces of ceiling away, but they’re heavy. I cough violently, my throat caked in debris, as I try calling out for anyone. Light peaks through my hiding space, as someone pulls off the slabs of ceiling.

“(Y/n)? Are you okay?,” Luther calls out, as he pulls me out from the pile. 

“I’m fine,” I cough out, “But was that really necessary?” He narrows his eyes, pissed that I went against his orders. As my eyes adjust to the dark, I realize that everything is still shaking, and Vanya is gone. The exit is blocked off, and Luther starts pulling the wall of debris apart. When he gets through, we climb out into the hallway where everyone else is slowly getting up the floor.

“Are you guys okay, where did she go?”

“Completely fine, nothing hurt, except our pride,” Klaus jokes, as he rubs the back of his head, “but you might want to get yourself checked out first.” My sleeve is soaked through with blood. I probably scratched it when I got out from the pile.

“We have bigger things to worry about right now,” I say, waving it off. 

“We need to get out of here. Now,” Luther says, as the building continues shaking, like a volcano about to erupt. We race to the elevator, which is luckily still working, and it creaks slowly to the main floor. I struggle to stand straight, as the elevator floor sways underneath us.

When the elevator finally makes it, Luther practically forces the doors open. “I need to find Mom!” Diego shouts, running into the house. We all split up, and I run upstairs, but when I move toward the rooms, a wall of heat singes my eyebrows. 

“Grace!” I shout into the open flames, as I hold my arm up to see inside. There’s no response, so I run down the hallway, echoing her name. There’s too many rooms in this building, and I’m not sure how much longer it’s going to hold.

Dust spills from the ceiling, and I run downstairs, intent on getting out. I run into the living room, where Pogo is displayed above the mantle, bones protruding from his chest. A low rumble from the house tells me that it's time to get out, right now. One last sweep of the floor tells me everyone else is out, and I burst through the main doors, right as the Academy collapses at my heels.

I turn back to look at the destruction, my chest heaving as my heartbeat thunders in my ears. I look up as someone yells my name.

“I’m here!” I force out, my voice strangled in my lungs. I climb across the piles of broken concrete, until I reach the others. I run up to Diego and grab his arm, trying to slow my breathing, but it gets caught in my throat, and I feel like I’m choking.

“Look at me, we’re going to get through this,” he says, placing his arms on my shoulders as he looks into my eyes, “Breathe. In, and out.” I follow his directions, and slowly come back, the tension in my body slowly easing.

“Where’s Grace?” I ask, my thoughts coming together.

“She didn’t make it,” he says, his voice tight, “And Pogo, he’s-”

“Dead, I saw him right before everything collapsed.”

“It was Vanya,” Luther interjects, “She killed him. I told you she was dangerous.”

“She’s hurt,” I fight back, and Allison looks at me. Not the time. her eyes say. I drop it, and sit down on what used to be a chair. What now?

“Guys, the apocalypse is still happening,” Five says, as he appears from behind a pile of concrete. 

“But you said-”

“Luther, look around you, this is as apocalyptic as it gets,” I say, the flaming piles of where we used to live burning into my retinas.

“The newspaper is the same as the one in the future,” Five continues, “Nothing’s changed.”

“But we’re alive,” Klaus argues.

“Who knows for how long. I always thought the Academy was destroyed in the apocalypse, but this only proves that it happened before. Harold Jenkins was only a means to an end. Which makes Vanya the bomb,” Five explains quickly. Luther turns around, eyebrows raised. Why did he have to be right?

I roll my eyes, and get up. “Let’s go find her, then.” As if on cue, police sirens begin wailing as they approach, search lights sweeping over the destruction.

“We gotta go, now!” Luther yells, “We’ll meet at the bowling alley.” We all head in different directions and I duck into an alleyway, my shoes soaked in leftover puddles. There’s no way the cops will look here, so I’ll be fine.

\--------

When I finally walk into the building, everyone else is already there, and the employees keep sneaking glances as I enter.

“...we need to be ready,” Luther finishes saying.

“To do what?” Diego asks him.

“To do whatever it takes to stop Vanya,” Luther clarifies, and Allison smacks him with her notepad.

“Yeah, because that worked out so well last time,” I reply, as I stand next to Allison.

“We don’t have a choice!” he argues.

“That’s bullshit, we have plenty of options,” Five cuts in.

“Like what?”

“I’m still figuring that out,” he admits.

“Whatever we decide on, we have to find her first,” Luther affirms, “She could be anywhere right now.” As he finishes his statement, Klaus brings his attention to the newspaper in his hands, Vanya’s smiling face advertising a concert taking place tonight. She’s our sister. Allison writes, as she shows Luther.

“We owe it to Dad to stop her,” Luther states, “He did everything to bring us together.”

“I agree with Luther,” Five calls out, “We can’t let her fight back, there’s too many lives at stake,”

“It’s because she’s your sister, that you should be trying to help her in a way that doesn’t put her in danger,” I reiterate, glaring at Luther, “I understand your intentions, but there has to be a way where we save the world, and Vanya at the same time.”

“I have an idea,” Klaus says, and Luther starts protesting, until Diego cuts him off.

“Let him speak, he saved my life.” We all turn to look at Klaus, who’s very interested in the wood grain of the floor.

“Is that true?” Luther asks, surprised.

“Yeah, I guess I did...take credit,” he answers, “Ben saved you, not me.” Interesting, but not out of the realm of possibility. If he can talk to the dead, who’s to say he can’t make them tangible? But everyone else looks at him disbelievingly.

“It’s true!” Klaus protests, “He punched me earlier, and he saved Diego! Let me prove it to you. Come on, Ben, let’s do this.” He grabs a bowling ball from the rack, and throws it into the air, where it thuds onto the floor loudly.

“Do you always need to be the center of attention?” Luther replies, annoyed. Klaus, frustrated, turns around and says he liked him better as a virgin. Allison’s eyes widen, as she turns to look at Luther. He looks like he’s waiting for the ground to swallow him whole.

“Oh shit, I mean...it wasn’t your fault, you were high, right? She thought he was a furry, and…” Klaus’s excuses falter at the sight of the expression on Allison’s face. She storms out into the street, as Luther chases after her. I’m kind of thirsty, so I walk up to the counter and buy something to drink. I take a seat, as one of the employees fills my cup. 

I watch as a woman walks up to Five, her son in tow. This probably isn’t going to end well. A couple of seconds later, she walks away quickly, as she throws nervous glances back at Five. I thank the worker, and head back, curious.

“...come give Daddy a hug,” Klaus says, arms outstretched, as Five snaps at him. My laughter coincides with the liquid coming from the straw, and I choke, my shirt covered in orange soda.

“Daddy?” Klaus turns around, no doubt intending to make another joke, when DIego coughs, trying not to look in our direction. My face burns, and I turn around quickly.

“I need to clean my shirt,” I mumble, heading towards the bathroom. I toss my cup in the garbage, and walk past the restroom doors, heading towards the sinks. I look like a mess. There are so many bags under my eyes, they wouldn’t be allowed as carry-on luggage at an airport. I splash water in my face, and wash the dust out of my hair, as country music fills the otherwise empty room. After a couple of minutes at the hand dryers, I head out, looking slightly less like I made it out of a collapsing building.

Luther and Allison are back, their voices getting louder as I approach the group. However, the sound of pounding feet makes me turn around. Armed people in gas masks storm in, as the other bowlers run away.

“Get down!” I shout, ducking behind a counter. The room fills with the echoes of gunshots, as Luther hurls bowling bowls towards the intruders, and Klaus hurls cake. I grab a ball from the rack beside me, and quickly toss it toward one of the shooters, knocking the gun out of their hands. “Strike!” I shout, before ducking to safety again.

“They’re blocking the exit!” Klaus yells, “What do we do, Luther?” Allison points to the alleys, frantic. It’s the only way to get out of here, but we can’t run straight down, there’s no way we’d make it out of here alive. I look around for something to distract them, when my hand brushes against my pocket. I get Allison’s attention, and show her the confetti poppers we bought earlier, holding three fingers up. She nods, and I throw two of them across the aisle. She catches them, and we position ourselves.

“One. Two. Three!” I turn the bottom of the cannons quickly, the room filling with a shower of pink smoke as confetti showers down. “It’s a girl!” I yell, before everyone sprints toward the alleys. I take three steps before slamming down on the oily runway, sliding into the pins, and dragging myself out into the back, as we all run out the door into the cold alleyway.

\-------

I shift in my chair for the fifth time, the upholstery scratchy on my skin. Klaus is on the lookout, and I’m waiting here to step in if things go south. And they do. Diego and Luther run towards Vanya, ready to tackle her, and are knocked back into the audience. “Shit shit shit,” I echo, but they’re not too badly hurt, so there’s that. Vanya makes the audience members get out of their seats and head out. If there’s a time to intervene, it’s now.

I push through the sea of well dressed people, trying to get through, and duck behind Allison, who’s taking cover in the rows of seats. She mimics playing the violin, trying to explain that it's her source of power. “We need to stop her from playing, it’s our only shot,” Luther shouts from across the aisle, but before we can come up with another plan, gunshots echo through the theater, and the masked people from before storm in, again. Great, just what we needed.

“Wasn’t Klaus supposed to be on the lookout?” Diego shouts.

“Are you really surprised?” Luther answers, as another volley of bullets spray over our heads. I move towards Allison, so she can hear me.

“Her power seems to stem from noise, right? We need to find a way to stop her from hearing, just long enough to stop her.” Allison nods in agreement, and I rack my brain, trying to think of a way to do just that.

Five shows up, sarcastic remark in hand. Luther yells at him to take cover, and he ducks behind the chairs. “We’re all screwed,” he states, offering no hope. Klaus chooses then to bust through the doors, to announce that Chacha is outside. He ducks into the rows, realizing that a gunfight is taking place. 

Five decides to take action, and throws himself on top of one of the shooters, knocking three more out. One of the guns slides near our row of seats, and I slide it toward me. I don’t exactly know how to use it, so I throw it at another shooter, who ducks, but the gun goes off as it hits the floor, and shoots their leg. Nice. I start weaving through the seats, trying to find another way to help, when Klaus’ hands start glowing from his hiding space, and a familiar person appears. Ben. Through some form of reanimation, Ben manages to knock out the shooters, like he used to when he was alive.

“Holy shit,” I whisper. I didn’t think we’d ever see him again. After everything is done, I run back to where Allison is standing. 

“Are you guys okay?” I ask, and they seem to be, as everyone begins regrouping, “What’s next?”

“We surround her,” Luther decides.

“No, you’re going to get yourselves killed,” I remind them of what happened the last time he tried that. Allison protests his idea, her gestures expressing her annoyance, but they don’t listen. FIve, Luther, Klaus, and Diego head towards the stage, their plans in hand, and I stay behind with Allison, looking at her exasperatedly. 

She picks one of the guns off of the floor and shows it to me, pointing to her ears. “Yes! That works.” She looks at me seriously, pointing at the floor by the stage, and me. “You want me to cover you?” She nods and squeezes my arm, heading for the stage. I shake my arms, ready to take on whatever was necessary. I can’t say I’m not scared, but there’s no time for fear.

I walk slowly up the center aisle, hands up, so that Vanya realizes I’m not a threat. I make it to the stage, and am about to climb up, when the guys attack. Vanya uses her powers to pick them off the floor, and they begin turning gray, as she drains their energy. I climb up the stage quickly, and outstretch my arms.

But there’s nothing to heal. She’s not inflicting injuries, so this isn’t something I can just take on. The clock is ticking, and each second is leading everyone closer to death. 

“Please, let me help them!” I plead to the universe, “I don’t care what it takes, just let them live!” I push my hands forward, concentrating on doing whatever it takes to keep everyone safe, to protect them. My chest aches, as pins and needles chase my blood to my fingertips, my own life energy seeping out toward them. I focus on splitting my life between the four of them, just long enough for Allison to come help. I can feel them getting better, but the battle to provide energy is difficult, as Vanya takes it away as quickly as I can emit it.

My fingertips start turning blue, and my knees buckle, the pain of my organs shutting down overwhelming, as I give everything that I have. I keep pushing forward, but my head feels like it’s splitting. I force my breath out and try to suck oxygen back into my lungs, but each breath takes more and more trouble to drag in. I don’t know how much longer I can hold out.

Bang!

I drop to my knees, chest heaving, but my vision is fading. I use the last ounces of energy I have left to keep my eyes open. They’re alive, thank god. I’m so glad I could help them. I want to get up, but that’s not going to be possible. I’m done. I lock eyes with Diego, who realizes what I’ve done. His eyes are wide as he begins to run over, his lips mouthing my name  (Y/n) , but it’s too late. At least he’s alive. My eyes water. I didn’t want to hurt him. I force the words out of my mouth before I drop to the floor.

“I’m sorry.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaand that's a wrap! Thank you so much for everyone for reading my first work! Please let me know what you think, and I'll see you all next time!


	15. Update!

Hello everyone! Just wanted to let you all know that Part 2 is up! Thank you for your support and have a wonderful week!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for your support, I am constantly working on this story, hopefully you enjoy it, and I will try to update weekly, if not sooner. Have a wonderful day, reader.


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